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The Nomenclature of the North American Cordillera between the 47th and 53rd Parallels of Latitude Author(s): Reginald A. Daly Source: The Geographical Journal, Vol. 27, No. 6 (Jun., 1906), pp. 586-606 Published by: geographicalj Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1776294 Accessed: 27-06-2016 02:44 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Wiley, The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Geographical Journal This content downloaded from 198.91.37.2 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 02:44:02 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms ( 586 ) THE NOMENCLATURE OF THE NORTH AMERICAN CORDIL- LERA BETWEEN THE 47TH AND 53RD PARALLELS OF LATITUDE.* By REGINALD A. DALY, Ottawa, Canada. Introduction and Outline.-In point of area, if not as certainly in point of total volume above sea, the western mountains of North America constitute by far the greatest system of the Earth. This vast region has always been very sparsely inhabited. In the orographic features it is generally complicated, often to the uttermost. Its exploration is only well begun. There are thus excellent reasons why the moun- tain units of this region are so inadequately named and systematized in geographical works, whether issued as official Government reports, as educational text-books or atlases, or as popular records of travel. Yet, whether he will or no, the explorer responsible for a report on any part of this region must confront the question of names. He returns from his rugged field, and, to tell of his findings, must use common nouns to indicate what kinds of land-relief he has found, and proper names to aid in individualizing and locating those reliefs in the huge backbone of the continent. This duty has fallen to the writer in the task of reporting on the geology of the mountains crossed by the 49th parallel boundary between Canada and the United States. Though the same transmontane section has been described by the geologists attached to the 1857-61 commis- sion, though it occurs along the most thickly settled part of British Columbia, and though it is nowhere very far from the lines of two transcontinental railroads, a complete and systematic grouping of the mountains on the boundary has never been made. The difficulty of supplying the lack was felt by the writer in the first of the five seasons devoted to the geology of the boundary, but the difficulty was more fully realized as the dire confusion of the nomenclature already in vogue became apparent. It is manifest that any attempt to develop a constructive view of the boundary mountains should be founded as far as possible upon established units already understood and named. The literature has, therefore, been carefully searched to furnish this required founda- tion. The result has shown a truly surprising variety of usages in names and in concepts of the topography. The course of compilation inevitably led to the study of the nomenclature of western ranges even far away from the 49th parallel of latitude. Examples of the differences of usage are recorded in the first part of the following paper. The record may serve in some degree to illustrate the need of a * Published by permission of the Canadian Commissioner, International Boundary Surveys. This content downloaded from 198.91.37.2 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 02:44:02 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms THE NOMENCLATURE OF THE NORTH AMERICAN CORDILLERA. 587 consistent scheme of nomenclature, possibly to suggest partial grounds on which uniformity may some day be established. The second part of this paper is concerned with a brief account of the nomenclature that seems most appropriate for the ranges crossed by the international boundary. Different Nomenclatures in Use.-The search for the variations of nomenclature was made both among authorities responsible on the ground of priority and among authorities influential as standard compilers from original sources. For the present purpose of indicating the lack of uniformity and the confusion into which the great mass of the people may be led by consulting existing works of reference, it is not sufficient to record names found only in Government map or careful scientific monograph. Perhaps more important still in this connection is the record to be made from standard atlases, from school geographies, and from standard influential guide-books. In reality, it has required the examination of but a very limited numbel of each kind of authorita- tive works to point the mLoral. With few exceptions the only works consulted were printed in the English language. The Diverse Naminng of the Western Mountain Regiotn as a Whole.-The question of the best general title for the western mountains may be considered as trite by those who do not feel the immediate need of its solution in their professional work. The writer by no means believes it to be trite, as he now completely realizes the wide latitude in naming among the recent influential publications dealing with North American geography. It is scarcely to the credit of our geo- graphical societies and alpine clubs that they will publish at length the statement of one traveller that he found mosquitoes in Newfound- land, of another that his hotel accommodation in Manila was bad, and leave undiscussed the suggestive paper of Prof. Russell and his corre- spondents on the names of the larger geographical features of North America.* There would be no advantage to the European geographers if the Alps masqueraded under a dozen different general titles dependent on the personal tastes of individual writers on those mountains. It is well known that one of the first designations of the entire mountain group lying between the Pacific and the Great llains was due to Humboldt. His "Cordilleras of the Andes" extended from Cape Horn to the mouth of the Mackenzie river. Humboldt occasioLally used the singular form " Cordillera of the Andes " for the same concept. In view of the general restriction of the term " Andes " to the mountains of South America, Whitney, in 1868, proposed that the name " Cordil- leras," with variants, " Cordilleran System " and " Cordilleran Region," be retained to designate the North American equivalent of the Andes. * Bull. Geog. Society of Philadelphia, 1899, vol. 2, p. 55. This content downloaded from 198.91.37.2 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 02:44:02 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms : 588 THE NOMENCLATURE OF THE NORTH AMERICAN CORDILLERA LLi < o This content downloaded from 198.91.37.2 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 02:44:02 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms BETWEFN THE 47TH AND 53RD PARALLELS OF LATITUDE. r589 This name was adopted in the United States census reports for 1870 and 1880, and by a great number of expert geologists and geographers since 1868. In process of time, however, the singular form, " Cordillera " and variants, became used in the same sense. In one of these forms the Humboldt root word with Whitney's definition has entered many atlases. It appears on numberless pages of high-class Government reports, geographical, geological, and natural history memoirs, and of such works as Baedeker's ' Guide-book to the United States,' Stanford's 'Coompendium of Geography,' etc. The time-honoured, erroneous, similarly inclusive name "Rocky Mountains," with variants, " Rocky Mountain System," "Rocky Mountain Belt," etc., has, however, held the dominant place in the popular usage. Its inappropriateness for the heavily wooded Canadian mountains is abundantly evident. For the United States, Clarence King wrote a generation ago- "The greatest looseness prevails in regard to the nomenclature of all the general divisions of the western mountains. For the very system itself there is as yet only a partial acceptance of that general name Cordilleras, which Humboldt applied to the whole series of chains that border the Pacific front of the two Americas. In current literature, geology being no exception, there is an unfortunate tendency to apply the name Rocky mountains to the system at large. So loose and meaningless a name is bad enough when restricted to its legitimate region, the eastern bordering chain of the system, but when spread westward over the Great Basin and the Sierra Nevada, it is simply abominable." * The following table summarizes the above-mentioned variants along with others more recently introduced, and still other general names now only of historical interest. The names of prominent authorities and the leading dates when they have published the respective titles are also entered in the table. The authority for some of the older names is Whitney's work on the United States, published in Boston, 1889. Mountains of the Bright Stones General use, end of eigh- teenth century. Shining Mountains Morse, 'Universal Geogra- phy,' 1802. Stoney or Stony Mountains Arrowsmith, 1795; Presi- dent Jefferson. Columbians (sic) Mountains Tardieu, 1820. Chippewayan Mountains Hinton, 1834. The Cordilleras of the Andes (in part) Humboldt, 1808, etc. The Cordillera of the Andes (in part) Humboldt, 1808, etc. * 'U.S. Geol. Exploration, 40th Parallel, Systematic Geology, 1878,' p. 5. This content downloaded from 198.91.37.2 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 02:44:02 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 590 THE NOMENCLATURE OF THE NORTH AMERICAN CORDILLERA The Cordilleras Whitney, 1868; many authors since.

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