On August the 4th 1842 the Congress of the USA passed a donation act for the Territory of East Florida. Persons who could bear arms were allowed one quarter section of land upon which to settle. On September the 27th, 1850, a donation act was passed for Oregon, granting settlers from 160 to 640 acres. Research Donation Lands
Under a treaty between America and Spain of 1819, parallel 42 degrees was fixed as the northern limit of Spain's possessions in America. Between 42 and 54 degrees 40 minutes lay the special 'Oregon country', claimed by both England and the United States. English fur-traders had passed to the south of parallel 49 degrees, below which surveys had been made by the United States, and where settlements were being- slowly made. In 1844 the hot-headed among the Democrats started the cry, Fifty-four forty or fight, referring to 54 degrees 4o minutes, for which limit they wished to resort to war. For a time war seemed inevitable, but in 1846 a treaty was concluded fixing the boundary between the British and United States possessions at 49 degrees north latitude. Research Fifty-four Forty or Fight
The term fur is sometimes distinctively applied to hairy animal skins when prepared for being made into articles of dress, etc, while the name of peltry is given to them in an unprepared state or when merely dried. The animals chiefly sought after for the sake of their furs were the beaver, raccoon, musk-rat, squirrel, hare, rabbit, the chinchilla, bear (black, grey, and brown), otter, sea-otter, seal, wolf, wolverine or glutton, marten, ermine, lynx, coypou (nutria), polecat (fitch), opossum, fox, etc. All the preparation that skins require before being sent to the market is to make them perfectly dry, so as to prevent them from putrefying. This is done by exposing them to the heat of the sun or a fire. The small skins are sometimes previously steeped in a solution of alum. When stored in large quantities they must be carefully preserved from dampness, as well as from moths. The fur-dresser, on receiving the skins, first subjects them to a softening process. He next cleans them from loose pieces of the integument by scraping them with a metalblade. Finally, the fur is cleaned and combed, after which it is handed over to the cutter, who cuts the furs out into the various shapes required to make different articles.
In Europe the furtrade was fed chiefly by Russia, which yielded great quantities of furs, especially in the Asiatic portion of her dominions. Austria, Turkey, Scandinavia, etc, also yielded a certain quantity.
The furtrade of America has long been highly important, and several great trading companies were engaged in it, of which the Dutch East India Company was first. The French early took up the furtrade in Canada, and their chain of forts and trading posts at one time extended from Hudson's Bay to New Orleans. Quebec and Montreal were at first trading posts. In 1670 Charles II granted to Prince Rupert and others a charter empowering them to trade exclusively with the aborigines of the Hudson's Bay region. A company, then and after called the Hudson's Bay Company, was formed, which for a period of nearly two centuries possessed a monopoly of the furtrade in the vast tract of country known as the Hudson's Bay Territory. In the winter of 1783-1784 another company was formed at Montreal, called, the North-west fur Company, which disputed the right of the Hudson's Bay Company, and actively opposed it. After a long and bitter rivalry the two companies united in 1821, retaining the name of Hudson's Bay Company. The monopoly which had hitherto been enjoyed by the original company about Hudson's Bay was much extended; but in 1868 an act of parliament was passed to make provision for the surrender, upon certain terms, of all the territories belonging to the company, and for their incorporation with the Dominion of Canada. In 1869 the surrender was carried out, Canada paying 300,000 pounds to the company by way of compensation. The company still possessed large stretches of valuable land, and many houses, forts, and posts in the region formerly belonging to it. Its operations even extended beyond British America into the United States and to the Sandwich Islands and Alaska. It employed a large staff of agents, traders, Indian hunters, etc. Some of its posts were situated far north, almost approaching the Arctic Ocean.
In the United States, the fur-trade, especially that trade in beaverfur, was an important element in the economic life of all the colonies in the seventeenth century, and in the struggle between England and France for the possession of North America, also in all negotiations respecting the northwest boundary of the United States. In 1809 John Jacob Astor secured the incorporation of the American Fur Company. He founded Astoria in Oregon, and attempted to connect it with Mackinaw by a line of posts and consolidate the whole north-western fur-trade. After the War of 1812 he renewed his attempt. In 1816 the American Congress passed an act excluding foreign fur-traders. Research Fur-Trade
The Hudson Bay Company was chartered by Charles II on May the 16th, 1670, for the discovery of a new passage to the South Sea, and for the finding of some trade for furs, minerals and other considerable commodities. Adopting the suggestion of Sir Alexander Mackenzie, it combined with the Northwest Company in 1821, and obtained a more extensive charter. It was ever the most formidable rival of the United States as a claimant of the northwest regions. Despite the treaty of 1783, which granted that territory to the United States, the company persisted in making settlements, and, being on the disputed ground, it had the advantage of the US Government. Every possible means was employed, and for a long time successfully, to prevent immigration from the United States. The Selkirk settlement in Oregon was made in 1811-12, and later it was decided to seize and hold Oregon by force, turning over the Indians to the Jesuits and furnishing troops to protect the priests and repel intruders. The boundary settlement of 1846 finally excluded the company. Research Hudson Bay Company
The Lewis and Clark Expedition was an exploration conducted in 1804 to 1806 by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, under orders from President Jefferson. They ascended the Missouri to its sources, crossed the Rocky Mountains, struck the head waters of the Columbia River, floated down that river to its mouth and explored a great deal of the Oregon country. Their explorations covered nearly all the country south of the 49 degree parallel. Their company was composed of nine Kentuckians and fourteen soldiers. They started for the East on March the 23rd, 1806, having explored nearly the whole of the Northwest regions. Research Lewis and Clark Expedition
Mountains are often classified according to their mode of formation: Fold
mountains; Block mountains; Residual mountains; Volcanic mountains.
High mountain chains such as the Himalayas, Andes, Alps, and Rockies are known as new fold mountain systems. The term 'fold' is a reference to the way in which such mountains have been formed. Throughout millions of years slow movements of the earth's crust have caused these
mountains to be raised. The movements which have resulted in mountain buildings were not, however, vertical uplifts. They were primarily horizontal movements, the effect of which was to cause the crust of the earth to 'wrinkle', in a similar way to which a tablecloth wrinkles if it is pushed along the table. The arched or upraised parts of the folds are known as anticlines and the troughs as synclines. These folds can vary greatly in size. Mountain building is undoubtedly due to some deep-seated cause. For a long period the most simple explanation was that folding was entirely due to the cooling and contraction of the earth, so that the crust, already cold and shrunken, had to wrinkle to fit itself to the still cooling and contracting 'core'. One of the objections advanced against this theory is that the amount of shrinking necessary to account for the Himalayas, Alps, etc., seems to be greater than the mere contraction of the earth would allow. While the theory of contraction cannot be completely rejected, serious consideration must be given to the more recent explanations of mountain building. For instance, Wegener suggests that mountain building may be due to the 'wrinkles' produced by the drifting of a continental mass, e.g. that the Alps were formed by the northward drift of the African continent towards the more stable blocks of Central Europe. As the African mass drifted slowly northward the zone between it and the European mass became narrower, and the land was raised into high ridges or folds. The raising of the Alps was accompanied by the formation of the deep trough which contains the Mediterranean Sea. The same hypothesis would account for the building of the Himalayas and the depression of the Indo-Gangetic trough by the northward drift of the Deccan mass.
During the physical history of the earth, mountain building appears to have proceeded more actively at some periods than others. Fold mountains are, therefore, not all of the same age. The newest group of fold mountains include the Himalayas, Alps, Rockies, and Andes. During an earlier period of folding (the Carboniferous) the Pennines, Appalachians, the Cape Ranges of South Africa, and the Dividing Range of Australia were uplifted. A still earlier period of folding accounted for the original mountains of Scotland and Norway, of which the present mountains are merely the worn down stumps. The older fold mountains, which have been subjected to the forces of denudation (such as the weather, rivers, glaciers, etc.) for long geological periods, are much lower and less rugged than the newer fold mountains. The term 'new fold' is applied to the mountain ranges which have been folded most recently, but they seem very old when their age in actual years is considered because they were uplifted many millions of years before historic time. Mountain building is a very long and slow process; and in the case of certain mountain chains, such as the Andes and the mountains of Japan, is probably still proceeding.
The new fold mountain systems of the world, except in such instances as the simple low folds of the Weald (South-east England), usually consist of high parallel ranges, the average height being well over 3000 metres. In the Himalayas' the highest peak rises to 8840 metres; in the Andes 7000 metres; in the Rockies 6000 metres; in the Alps to 4600 metres. Vast though these heights appear, the wrinkles of the earth's crust are only slight. The highest mountain in the world (MountEverest) is about five miles high, so that on a globe of 40 cm, diameter it would protrude only 2.5 mm. Most of the active volcanoes are found in the neighbourhood of fold mountains, where the crust of the earth has been fractured during the process of folding. All around the PacificOcean there are many active and extinct volcanoes, as in New Zealand, the East Indies, Japan, and North, Central, and South America. Another belt of active volcanoes is associated with the fold mountains of the West Indies. The mountains of this type are characterised by ruggedness of relief in contrast to the smooth and rounded contours of mountain areas which have been subjected to weathering agents for long periods of time. This is obvious if pictures of the Alps and the Scottish Highlands are compared.
Mountains are effective climatic barriers, and the climates of regions on either side of a high mountain range are very different. For example, the coast lands of British Columbia have an equable climate and a heavy rainfall, while the lands to the east of the Rockies have an extreme climate and light rainfall. Again, the climate of the mountainous areas differs from that of the adjacent lowlands. The great mountain systems of the world are mainly important for their minerals, and, in the temperate zone, for their lumber. In the plateau regions of some mountain systems agriculture has been made possible by irrigation, and above the forests in temperate areas there are valuable alpine pastures. The swift streams of mountains are frequently sources of hydro-electric power, especially in countries which have no coal, such as Switzerland and Norway. In North America, the Western Cordillera provides gold, copper, lead, and silver, especially in the states of Nevada and Montana. The Andes provide tin and copper (Bolivia), gold and platinum
(Colombia), and silver (Peru). The Highlands of East Australia are important for copper and gold. The lumbering industry is specially important in British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon (soft woods), the Central American mountainous lands (hard woods), the Himalayan slopes (teak and sal), and the Scandinavian mountains (soft woods).
To provide food for the mining communities in inaccessible mountain areas, agriculture has been developed. There are numerous irrigation schemes in operation in most of the mountain states of the USA, e.g. at SaltLake City in Utah. Similarly, the Andean states, e.g. Bolivia, grow small quantities of cereals in the plateau areas. Mountain pastures have been utilised most extensively for cattle rearing in Switzerland and Scandinavia. The vast central plateau of Asia is, owing to difficulty of access and climatic extremes, so isolated from other regions that very little development of any kind, on modern lines, has taken place. High mountain ranges are also barriers to communication, and so tend to separate peoples. Traffic across mountains is limited to the passes, which are often so high as to be snowbound in winter. Such ranges as the Alps, Andes, etc. can only be crossed with great difficulty or by expensive tunnelling.
It sometimes happens that movement of the earth's crust occurs along cracks or faults. Where such movement leaves a block of higher land standing between two areas of lower land, the highland is known as a 'Block Mountain' or horst. The Vosges and Black Forest Mountains are examples of such formations These mountains are usually very steep-sided, and often the summit levels are roughly the same.
When an area of highland remains standing above the general level after rivers and other natural agents have lowered the surface of the surrounding area, the name residual mountain is used. Sometimes such highlands are called 'mountains of denudation'. This term can usually be applied to the mountain ridges associated with 'dissected plateaux'. Included in this class are the mountain ridges of the Highlands of Scotland, the Sierras of Central Spain, and the Mesas and Buttes of the western plateaulands of the United States.
Mountains may be formed by volcanic material piled up around a crater, such mountains are popularly known as volcanoes. Research Mountains
The Northwest Boundary Question was a historic territorial dispute in North America. The territory bounded north by latitude 54 degrees 40 minutes, east by the Rocky Mountains, south by latitude 42 degrees, and west by the Pacific Ocean has been claimed at various times and to various extents by Russia, Spain, Great Britain and the United States. The Russian claim, which rested mainly upon occupation by fur traders, was settled by a treaty made on January 11, 1825. Under this treaty the United States were to make no-settlements north of latitude 54 degrees 40 minutes and Russia none south of that latitude. England and Russia agreed upon the same terms.
The Spanish claims were confined south of latitude 42 degrees by the treaty which ceded Florida in 1819. Great Britain had little or no claim by discovery. The United States' claim rested upon the voyage of Gray up the Columbia River in 1792, and the explorations of Lewis and Clark through the Rocky Mountains and through the Oregon country in 1805-06, under the orders of Jefferson. By the treaty of October the 20th, 1818, the whole territory west of the Rocky Mountains was to be opened to both countries for ten years, and, in 1827, the joint occupation for an indefinite period was agreed upon. Later this produced dissatisfaction, and after considerable negotiation, Great Britain was induced in 1846 to accept latitude 49 degrees as the boundary from the Rocky Mountains to the channel between Vancouver's Island and the mainland. Research Northwest Boundary Question
The Wilmot Proviso was an American anti-slavery proposal. On August the 8th, 1846, President Polk of America, in a special message to Congress, requested 'money for the adjustment of a boundary with Mexico', that is, for the purchase of Mexican territory outside of Texas. A bill appropriating $2,000,000 was at once introduced into the House. David Wilmot, a Democrat, of Pennsylvania, proposed as an amendment the since famous 'Wilmot Proviso', which 'provided that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of said territory, except for crime, whereof the party shall first be duly convicted'. The bill thus amended passed the House, but failed in the Senate. On January the 4th, 1847, a bill appropriating $3,000,000 instead of $2,000,000 was proposed by Preston King. It passed the House with the proviso attached, but the latter was dropped in the Senate. For a number of years the Wilmot Proviso was brought up and debated whenever new territories were to be organized. It was discussed in the case of Oregon, California, Utah and New Mexico, but was not finally established until June the 9th, 1861, when Congress passed an act prohibiting 'slavery in any territories of the United States now existing, or which may be hereafter formed or acquired'. Research Wilmot Proviso
The Kiger Mustang is a North American breed of horse of Spanish descent from the Beaty Butte region in Lake County, Oregon. They are uniformly of a dun colouration, ranging from brown-dun to nearly white with dorsal stripes and zebra striped legs. Research Kiger Mustang
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Donation Lands
