Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/233

* BOCKVILLE. 209 KOCKY MOUNTAINS. Haven and Hartford Kailroad (Jlap: Connecti- cut, F 2). The liockaniim Uivcr makes u total descent of more tluui 2oU feet through Hoekville, ati'ording exceUeiit water-power. The industrial establishments include cotton and woolen mills, silk mills, knitting mills, envelope factories, etc. There are high school and public libraries. Set- tlers came to the vicinity of'Rockvillc as early as 1721, but the village ])roper dates from about 1S40. It Avas chartered as a city in 1880. Popu- lation, in ISHO, 7772; in 1900, "7287. ROCKWEED. See PH-EOi'iiycu-E ; Seaveed. KOCK WREN. A singular little wren {Sal- pinctcs ohsolctiis) of the Southwestern United States, which lives among the loose rocks of the moimtain sides, where it places its large globular nest upon a ledge or within some crevice. It creeps and skips about with the furtive activity of a wild mouse, and in spring utters a loud, sweet, and beautiful song, somewhat like that of the mocking wren. Consult Coues, Birds of the Colorado Valley (Washington, 1878). KOCKY MOUNTAIN LOCUST. See Lo- cust. ROCKY MOUNTAINS. A name here used to indicate the assemblage of mountain ranges which form the 'backbone' of North America. They begin at the south in Central Mexico, and extend northward across the United States and Canada to near the coast of the Arctic Ocean. On the east they are bordered from near Vera Cruz, Mexico, to the valley of the Mackenzie, by the Great Plateaus, or Great Plains as more commonly termed; and on the west, within the United States, by the Great Basin region which reaches from the head of the Gulf of Cali- fornia northward into Canada, and separates them from the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Mountains. The west border in Canada is less together with .several largo plateaus, numerous valleys, 'parks,' canons, etc., as well as niultitiides of peaks, ridges, mesas, and buttus. In fact, it contains typical representatives of nearlv every known topographic form. Considered in ri'fer- ence to origin, the topograi>hic forms inenlimied include elevations produced by the upheaval, folding, and faulting of .sedimentary and other rocks, and also niomtains due to vdlcanie erup- tions, and still others produced by igni-ous in- trusions, and an endless array of secondary fea- tures resulting from erosion "or earth aculjiture. One of the most conspicuous features of the chain, and one which has been used as a basis for dividing it into two portions, is the pres«-nce in Wyoming of a broad plateau tremling east and west, known as the Laramie Plains. This plateau, with a general elevation of about 7000 feet, reaches from the Grand Plateau in the east nearly to the Great Basin in the west and sepa- rates the northern from the soiilhern Kockies. This great 'pass' was chosen for the route of the Union Pacific Railroad, the first of the several transcontinental railroads now in 0|K'ration. The several ranges composing the soul hern Rockies are for the most part arranged with their larger a.xes in a generally north and south direction, while the trend of the northern Rockies. as well as of their eoni])onent ranges, is in gen- eral northwest and southeast. Within the United States the portion of the Rocky Mountains to the north of the Laramie Plains has been termed the Stony Jlountains. a revival of the name applied to them by Lewis and Clark, during tlicir historic explorations in 1804-00; and the portion of the southern Kockies, situated principally in Colorado, northern New ^Mexico, eastern L'tah, etc.. has been designated as the Park Mountains. These two systems of ranges are the best known portions of the chain well known and as seems probable less sharply of which they form a part, and together with the defined than is the portion just referred to. but may be taken at least provisionally as coinciding ■with the west border of the Gold Mountains of Canada. The unsatisfactory condition of the nomencla- ture at present applied to the larger physio- graphic features of North America is illustrated above by the rather vague limits it is necessary to assign to the Rocky Mountains. The same condition is also shown by the fact that in Can- ada the term Rocky Mountains is restricted to the east range of the series of uplifts to which it is applied in the United States. To the west of the range thus designated, in Canada, and separated from it by a broad valley some 700 miles long, trending north and south, are the Gold Mountains, consisting principally of the Sel- kirk, Purcell, Columbia, and Caribou ranges. The term 'Canadian Rockies' is in current use, how- ever, and includes all of the mountains in Can- ada, which are a direct northward continuation of the Rocky Mountains of the United States. southern portion of the Canadian Kockies must of necessity be taken as representative of its en- tire extent. The Stony Mountains contain among their leading topographic features many important mountain ranges. In Wyoming the representative uplifts are: The Big Horn range, which, extend- ing from near the centre of the State about 150 miles northward, ends in Montana. It is due principally to a single great upward folii in the rocks; the east slope is precl]iitons ami the west slope gently inclined. The crest line has an elevation of from SOOO to I.'i.OOO feet, anil Cloud Peak, the culminating point, rises 1,3. IC) feet above the sea. The Wind River range, in the west- central part of the .State, presents a line s«'ries of rugged peaks along its crest, at least a dozen of which have elevations in excess of 11,000 fei't. the highest being Fremont Peak. 13.700 feet. The Teton range, near the northwest border of the State, is the boldest and probably the finest of the series, and culminates in the Grand Teton, a To the south of the United States the Rocky spine-like peak, rising 1.3.001 feet above the sea Mountains include the tableland of North-central Jlexico, with its numerous rugged mountain ranges and intervening valley, all of which trend in a generally north and south direction. The length of the Rocky ^Mountain chain from north to south is some 4000 miles, and its width between 400 and .500 miles. Within its borders are several mountain systems, as will be shorni below, and a large number of individual ranges. and 7000 feet above Jackson Lake, from which it ni.ay be seen to the greatest a<lvantage. The Wiiid River, Teton, ami other neighboring ranges, situated principally in northwest Wyoming, rise from a region some 1.5.000 sipiare miles in area, which has a general elevation in excess of 8000 feet and is only exceeded in extent among the regions of similar elevation in North America by the central part of the Park Mountains. From