The Compromise of 1850 was a compromise between the anti-slavery and pro-slavery parties in the USA. As it was finally passed, it took the form of several separate bills, which had been practically comprehended in Clay's 'Omnibus Bill', proposed and defeated a short time before. Under the compromise, Texas was allowed $10,000,000 for New Mexico, and the boundary of that territory was cut down considerably. On August the 13th, California was admitted to the Union with her free Constitution. On August the 15th, bills for establishing territorial governments in New Mexico and Utah were passed, containing a slavery option clause proposed by SenatorSoule. On August the 26th, the fugitive slave bill, denying arrested Negroes a trial by jury, and prohibiting redress to free coloured [black] seamen imprisoned in Southern ports, was passed. Research Compromise of 1850
The Edmunds Act was an American bill submitted by SenatorEdmunds of Vermont, and passed by Congress in March 1882 to regulate and restrict the polygamous institutions of the Mormons in Utah. Under its provisions Mormons were in a great measure excluded from local offices, which they had hitherto wholly controlled. Many people were indicted and punished for polygamy also. Research Edmunds Act
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 Mountain Meadow Massacre occurred in the autumn of 1857 when a body of thirty-six Arkansas and Missouri emigrants en route to California, were brutally murdered at Mountain Meadow, Utah, by a band of Indians, who were incited thereto by Lee, a Mormon fanatic. It was the period of the first troubles between the United States Government and the Mormons. Brigham Young had made threats of turning the Indians loose upon west-bound emigrants, but the Mormons, as a body, were innocent of the massacre. The emigrant party was encamped at Mountain Meadow when the attack began on September the 7th. They threw up earthworks and defended themselves for four days. Lee, under pretence of friendship, succeeded in drawing them out and murdering the whole party. Research Mountain Meadow Massacre
The Omnibus Bill was a bill submitted to the American Congress by Henry Clay on January the 29th, 1850, at the time of the application of California for admission to the Union. The bill provided for the admission of California with her free constitution; territorial governments in New Mexico and Utah without express restriction upon slavery; a territorial boundary line between Texas and New Mexico in favour of the former; a more effective fugitive slave law; and denial to Congress of power to interfere with the slave trade between slave States. After much cutting and amendment the bill was passed in July, 1850, as a series of acts. Research Omnibus Bill
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 Arizona Mountain Kingsnake (Lampropeltis pyromelana pyromelana) is a subspecies of the Utah Mountain Kingsnake found in Chihuahua and Sonora in Mexico where they grow to 107 cm in length and are distinguished by more than forty narrow white rings encircling the body. The head is black in colour with a white or pale yellow coloured snout with dark mottling. Chihuahuas are sprightly dogs, energetic, leaping rapidly about and inquisitive with fine hearing. Research Arizona Mountain Kingsnake
The Chihuahua Mountain Kingsnake (Lampropeltis pyromelana knoblochi) is a rare subspecies of the Utah Mountain Kingsnake, found in northern Mexico where it grows to an average length of about 91 cm, sometimes reaching 102 cm in length and feeds on lizards and small rodents, such as mice. Research Chihuahua Mountain Kingsnake
The Sonoran Mountain Kingsnake (Lampropeltis pyromelana) is a species of King snake that grows to a length of about 104 centimetres. It has the common red colour with white bands sandwiched between thin black bands and a snout of a white colour with black and white flecking, or pale yellow. The Sonoran Mountain Kingsnake occurs in Utah, Nevada, Arizona and northern Mexico. Research Sonoran Mountain Kingsnake
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Compromise of 1850
