Project Gutenberg's The Western United States, by Harold Wellman Fairbanks

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Title: The Western United States
A Geographical Reader

Author: Harold Wellman Fairbanks

Release Date: August 13, 2007 [EBook #22302]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WESTERN UNITED STATES ***

Produced by Robert J. Hall

[Illustration: THE TWINS, BLUFF CITY, UTAH

The distance from the bottom of the cliff to the top of the erosion
columns is 275 feet.

_Frontispiece_]

THE WESTERN

UNITED STATES

_A GEOGRAPHICAL READER_

BY

HAROLD WELLMAN FAIRBANKS, PH.D.

AUTHOR OF "STORIES OF OUR MOTHER EARTH," "HOME GEOGRAPHY," "STORIES
OF ROCKS AND MINERALS," "PHYSIOGRAPHY OF CALIFORNIA," ETC.

BOSTON, U.S.A.

D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS

1904

PREFACE

In the preparation of this book the author has had in mind the
needs of the upper grammar grades. The subject matter has not been
selected with the object of covering the field of Western geography
in a systematic manner, but instead the attempt has been made to
picture as graphically as may be some of its more striking and
interesting physical features, and the influence which these features
have exerted upon its discovery and settlement.

Those subjects have been presented which have more than local interest
and are illustrative of world-wide principles. Clear conceptions
of the earth and man's relation to it are not gained by general
statements as readily as by the comprehensive study of concrete
examples.

Nowhere outside of the Cordilleran region are to be found so remarkable
illustrations of the growth and destruction of physical features, or
so clear examples of the control which physical features exercise
over the paths of exploration, settlement, and industrial development.

The fact that the West furnishes a wealth of material for geography
teaching has long been recognized in a general way, although there
has been but little attempt to present this material in a form
suitable for the use of schools.

The illustrations are, with few exceptions, from the author's own
photographs, and the descriptions are made up