The surface zones of the globe : a handbook to accompany a physical chart / by Keith Johnston.

Date:
1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The surface zones of the globe : a handbook to accompany a physical chart / by Keith Johnston. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    mals. In describing their great abundance of big game, Mr Bell says*—'One herd of antelope was so large that, al- though they commenced to bound like lightning across the road in single file as soon as they caught sight of us, the tail of the herd nearly came in contact with our leaders. Like many other wild animals which congregate in herds and fol- low a chief, all considered themselves bound to keep exactly in the same track. As for the buffalo they were in prodigious numbers. . . . On one occasion, about 150'miles from Den- ver, to the left of the road, that is as far as the eye could reach, that is for very many miles, the plain was completely covered with them. There were thousands, millions if you like, for such numbers were beyond calculation.' Many other comparatively small areas of the central por- tion of the North American plateau, lying between its outer belts of forest and the arid basins of its middle surface, have the name and character of prairie land. Such are the grassy plains of the interior of British Columbia; the prairies of Wash- ington territory,-extending to the base of the Cascade Moun- tains, surrounding the lower valley of the Columbia, which pro- duces rich and nutritious ' bunch grass/ and affords sustenance to thousands of horses, sheep, and other cattle; the pastoral valleys of Idaho; the rich grazing land of the Laramie Plains, between the Black Hills and the Wasatch Mountains, in Wyom- ing ; the ' parks' of alternate forest and meadow land in Colo rado, and the pastures of New Mexico and Eastern Arizona. The fertile lowlands on the narrow Pacific coast, also belong to this zone; and among these may be more specially noticed the prairies and cultivable lowlands which lie round the coasts of * Bell, ' New Tracks in North America,' 1S70. Tlie sketch of this herd in the prairie, given by Mr Bell, has been taken (by permission) as the basis of the illustration on the opposite page.