We go on across the Great• Plain of the Mississippi Valley. As we go we see fewer and fewer fields of grain, but more pasture fields. The houses are farther apart. We do not see many streams, because there is not enough rain here to make many streams or to make many things grow. (See Fig. 52.) The towns are miles and miles apart. There are no trees or fences, only open country, grass, large herds of cattle, and cowboys riding with them. (See Fig. 95.) 39. The Rocky Mountains.—After riding four days through this dry and lonely country, we see something shining in the sky far away to the west. Is it a white cloud? No, it is a sharp, high mountain top or peak, so high that its top is covered with snow even in June. This peak we see ahead of us is one of the Rocky Mountains. It is more than two miles above the level of the sea. Other peaks not quite so high are near it, and the mountain between them is not much lower than the peaks. This string of peaks makes a mountain range, but it is more uneven than those we saw in the east. We soon find that there are other ranges beyond the first one—many others: All together they make a mountain system,—the Rocky Mountain System.
When we get closer to the high peak, we see only snow and rocks at its top. Farther down its sides is the dark green of a pine forest. The upper edge of this forest is called the timber line, because no trees grow above this line. The trees here are small and crooked, stunted by the cold and beaten by wind. Above the timber line it is too cold for trees. The tops of high mountains are always cold. That is why the snow stays there in the summer time. Down in the valleys between the ranges we find a few beautiful farms and some towns where miners live. These miners are digging gold and silver out of the mountain sides. (See Fig. 124.) In the western part of this mountain system, we come to some rivers with banks half a mile deep, and straight up and down like the sides of railroad cuts. These banks are so steep that even if we could climb down them, there would not be room to walk along the edge of the stream in this narrow trough, or canyon. Boats cannot travel on these streams, for the water tumbles over rocks in waterfalls.
40. The Great takes us three days to go through the Rocky Mountain country with its peaks, forests, rocks, canyons, tumbling streams and beautiful valleys. Next we spend four days in a country beyond the mountains, called the Great Basin. People call it a basin because the mountains all around it are higher than the central part, thus making a deep, hollow basin. We have come to the dryest part of the journey across the continent. Here it is hot and the roads are dusty, so dusty! Sometimes there is nothing but sand.
We do not see any green grass nor any corn fields, but only a few low bushes. Some times we have to carry our drinking water with us. Even the sides of the mountains that we pass are bare of growing things.
41. The Sierra last we come to another high mountain range, the Sierra Nevada, the last one we shall cross. For hours our automobile climbs up beside a clear, sparkling mountain stream. We reach beautiful, cDol, evergreen forests, and our road crosses the range through a pass— a kind of notch or low place in the moun tains. Roads nearly always go through passes in crossing mountain ranges. The first white men to cross these ranges had a great search to find the passes before they could reach the other side.
Wonderful forests cover the highlands of the Sierras. Beyond is the Great Valley of California. Down, down we go and are again on level land where there are farms and villages. Here we find also great orchards of fruit trees. It takes a day to cross this valley. Next morning a ferry boat carries our automobile across San Francisco Bay to the city of San Francisco. Big steamships lie beside the wharves. They are loading and unloading freight.
Soon they will sail out into the bay, on into the Pacific Ocean, and far away to cities across the great sea.
42. Crossing the continent pose we now cross the continent in the other direction, from south to north; from the mouth of the Mississippi River to the mouth of the Mackenzie River. Find these two rivers on the map. (Figs. 48 and 51.) We shall cross no high mountains such as those we crossed going the other way.
43. Going up the shall travel part of the way by boat. Our steamboat starts from the big city of New Orleans near the mouth of the Mississippi River. As we go upstream, we pass green fields of sugar cane, and other fields where black people are picking white cotton from the cotton plants. There are no hills, but only fields and forests. After several days on the boat, we come to the land of corn, wheat, and cattle. This is the great plain of the cen tral Mississippi Valley that we cross ed going west. We come again ' to Keokuk. How does our boat get around the dam? The boat has to be lifted up in a lock (see Fig. 210) so that it can float away on the water above the dam.
44. The level center of the continent.— At Minneapolis we leave the boat and again go by automobile. For a time we see woods here and there,' then for hours at a time we do not see a tree or a hill on the level plain. The land near the boundary between the United States and Canada is as flat as a floor. The farm houses are sometimes without any shade trees at all.