The last spur that deserves notice in this place is that which is called the “Snowy Mountains.” It has already been described in this work; and it can only be necessary here to repeat that it branches off from the Wind river peak in latitude 41° north, and runs in an irregular broken line to Cape Mendocino, in Upper California. The Blue Mountains are a range of heights which commence at the Saptin, about twenty miles above its junction with the Columbia, near the 46° of north latitude, and run south-westerly about two hundred miles, and terminate in a barren, rolling plain. They are separated from the Rocky Mountains by the valley of the Saptin, and are unconnected with any other range. Some of their loftiest peaks are more than ten thousand feet above the level of the sea. Many beautiful valleys, many hills covered {225} with bunch grass, and very many extensive swells covered with heavy yellow pine forests, are found among them. The President’s range is in every respect the most interesting in Oregon. It is a part of a chain of highlands, which commences at Mount St. Elias, and gently diverging from the coast, terminates in the arid hills about the head of the Gulf of California. It is a line of extinct volcanoes, where the fires, the evidences of whose intense power are seen over the whole surface of Oregon, found their principal vents. It has twelve lofty peaks; two of which, Mount St. Elias and Mount Fairweather, lie near latitude 55° north;[26] and ten of which lie south of latitude 49° north. Five of these latter have received names from British navigators and traders. The other five have received from American travellers, and Mr. Kelly, the names of deceased Presidents of the Republic. Mr. Kelly, I believe, was the first individual who suggested a name for the whole range. For convenience in description I have adopted it.[27] And although it is a matter in which no one can find reasons for being very much interested, yet if there is any propriety in adopting Mr. Kelly’s name for the whole {226} chain, there might seem to be as much in following his suggestion, that all the principal peaks should bear the names of those distinguished men, whom the suffrages of the people that own Oregon[28] have from time to time called to administer their national government. I have adopted this course.