Travels in Alaska 



Butte and Mt. Shasta along the Cascade Range to 

 Mt. Baker. One of the most telling views of it here- 

 abouts is obtained near Tacoma. From a bluff back of 

 the town it was revealed in all its glory, laden with gla- 

 ciers and snow down to the forested foothills around 

 its finely curved base. Up to this time (1879) it had 

 been ascended but once. From observations made 

 on the summit with a single aneroid barometer, it 

 was estimated to be about 14,500 feet high. Mt. 

 Baker, to the northward, is about 10,700 feet high, a 

 noble mountain. So also are Mt. Adams, Mt. St. 

 Helens, and Mt. Hood. The latter, overlooking the 

 town of Portland, is perhaps the best known. Rainier, 

 about the same height as Shasta, surpasses them all 

 in massive icy grandeur, the most majestic soli- 

 tary mountain I had ever yet beheld. How eagerly I 

 gazed and longed to climb it and study its history 

 only the mountaineer may know, but I was compelled 

 to turn away and bide my time. 



The species forming the bulk of the woods here is 

 the Douglas spruce (Pseudotsuga douglasii), one of 

 the greatest of the western giants. A specimen that 

 I measured near Olympia was about three hundred 

 feet in height and twelve feet in diameter four feet 

 above the ground. It is a widely distributed tree, ex- 

 tending northward through British Columbia, south- 

 ward through Oregon and California, and eastward 

 to the Rocky Mountains. The timber is used for ship- 

 building, spars, piles, and the framework of houses, 

 bridges, etc. In the California lumber markets it is 

 known as " Oregon pine." In Utah, where it is com- 



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