| Share page |
|
346 |
Old-time Schools and School-books |
||
|
Early in the lessons we are informed that the " Alleganies are in some places, immense masses of rocks, piled one above another in frightful precipices, till they reach the height of more than 10,000 feet above a level with the ocean." In reality not a peak reaches 7000 feet.
During the previous decade Lewis and Clark had made their journey across the continent, and we now find mention of the "Stony Mountains." It was a number of years before the name Rocky was substituted for Stony. On the maps they were sometimes labelled the Chippewan Mountains, and Workman's Geography,in 1805, says the ranges "that lie weft of the river St. Pierre are called the Shining Mountains, from an infinite number of chryftal ftones of an amazing fize with which they are covered, and which, when the fun fhines full upon them, fparkle fo as to be feen at a very great diftance."
In the descriptions of the states, we learn from Cummings that the western part of Pennsylvania abounds with excellent coal, but we get no hint of its having any commercial importance. Indeed, coal mining as an industry did not begin until 1820. Before that time coal was in the same category as were petroleum and natural gas, which the book calls " curiosities."
Concerning the Andes in South America, we are told, " These amazing mountains, in comparison with which the Alps are but little hills, have fissures in some places a mile wide, and deep in proportion; and there are others that run under the ground, and resemble in extent a province." |
|||