Page:Maury's New Elements of Geography, 1907.djvu/73

 the Rocky mountains, with many peaks nearly three miles high, the Great plateau, the Sierra Nevada, and the Cascade range. Some of the towns among the mountains ace more than two miles above the sea.

Alaska is crossed by mountain ranges. Here is Mount McKinley, the highest peak in North America.

2. The Great Salt lake lies at the bottom of a deep basin or depression in the Great plateau. Its water is so salt that one cannot sink in it. It floats a man as brine floats an egg. The length of the lake is seventy-five miles. Steamers sail on it.

Yellowstone lake in the National park.

3. The Yellowstone National park is in Wyoming. It is a large region set apart by Congress to belong forever to the nation. Find it on the map.

It is famed for its geysers (ghi'-sers), canyons, and waterfalls. The geysers are springs that spout up hot water. One of them sends up a column of water 200 feet high.

Castle Geyser in eruption.

The park contains also the canyons of the Yellowstone river. What are canyons? On page 38 is a picture of a canyon.

4. The scenery of these states is very grand. In California are the wonderful Yosemite (yo-sem'-i-te) falls. The water makes three leaps. The first of these is nearly a third of a mile, and the whole distance through which the water descends is about half a mile.

The Yosemite valley, through which the river runs after leaping the falls, is one of the grandest scenes in the world. It is shut in by walls of rock nearly half a mile high.

Yosemite Falls.

The "big trees" of California are among the largest in the world. Some of them are more than 300 feet high, twice as high as a very tall church steeple, and more than 100 feet around.

For Recitation.—Which are the most mountainous parts of our country? Name the principal mountain ranges of this section. For what is the National park noted? What natural curiosities are found in California?

One of the "Big Trees" near Fresno, California. We see a troop of United States cavalry drawn up along the tree and on top of it to be photographed.