GLACIERS AND VOLCANOES 
75 
temperature than Scotland, but it has a much greater rain¬ 
fall. This enormous precipitation on the Pacific coast has 
a striking effect on the vegetation. The whole of south-eastern 
Alaska is densely timbered with forests of spruce and hem¬ 
lock, also red and yellow cedar and other trees, their luxurious 
growth contrasting strongly w T ith the open forests of the 
interior and the more northern treeless barren-grounds. Yet 
the lowlands of the interior are usually well wooded with 
spruce, cottonwood, birch, willow and alder. At a height of 
from about 2,000 to 3,000 feet above sea-level, forest growth 
ceases altogether. Here the climate becomes continental in 
character, with great extremes of heat and cold. In the 
northern parts of the country the surface everywhere is 
covered with dense growth of moss and grass, with an 
abundance of wild flowers, whereas the ground beneath is 
perpetually frozen. 
Alaska possesses many other features of unrivalled interest. 
The magnificent peaks clustering about Mount Fairweather 
as a centre, and containing Mount St. Elias, Mount Logan 
and Mount McKinley, the latter with a height of 20,400 
feet being the loftiest mountain in North America, have 
excited the just admiration of those who have been fortunate 
enough to visit this region. Splendid glaciers here and there 
descend from the great mountain valleys down to sea-level, 
while further west we notice in Mount Wrangell a fine example 
of an active volcano. The vast glaciers have given rise to 
the popular idea that Alaska is a country of unlimited snow 
and ice. As a matter of fact they are almost entirely confined 
to the Pacific mountain system. 
Near the sea border the climate is, as I mentioned, much 
milder than in the interior of the country, yet an abundant 
precipitation from the warm moisture-laden winds here pro¬ 
duces the extensive snow-fields from which the glaciers are 
fed. On the land side of the Pacific Mountain range glaciers 
are very poorly developed. Further inland they are entirely 
absent. 
Since a vast area of land in Alaska remains uncovered by 
ice, in spite of a low mean temperature, we must recognise the 
justice of Professor Whitney’s assertion, that a still greater 
increase of cold would not cover those regions with ice, nor 
