221 



ment, as it is known that Mr. Moses was the first person to ascend 

 the mountain with a barometer. 



The heights of Mt. Pitt, Diamond Peak, the Three Sisters, and 

 Mt. Jefferson, are usiiallj given at 10,000 to 11,000 feet, from 

 guess, as none of them have ever been measured, so far as can be 

 ascertained. It is clear that neither of them is as high as several 

 of the peaks farther north. The Pacific Rail Road partj in charge 

 of Lieutenants Williamson and Abbot, although circulating for 

 sometime through that part of the Cascade range, never ascended 

 any of those peaks, neither have they given any estimates of their 

 heights. 



Mt. Hood, the peak or cone next north of Mt. Jefferson, and 

 about twenty-five miles south of the Columbia River, has been the 

 object of more speculation as to its height than any other of the 

 high points of the range, unless it be Mt. Shasta. As far as can 

 be ascertained, it has never been ascended with a barometer. Many 

 persons have considered it the highest point of the chain ; Avhile 

 others, whose opinions seem more reliable, have asserted that it is 

 inferior in height to Shasta, Rainier, Adams, and perhaps others. 

 Thus Lieut. Abbot speaks of Mt. Shasta as the " largest and grand- 

 est peak of the Cascade range," while Dr. Newberry of the same 

 expedition, calls Mt. Hood the " loftiest peak in the chain." The 

 statements in the books with regard to the height of Hood, vary 

 from 7,710 to 18,3<30 feet. Grewingk, in his usually exact work 

 on the Orography of the Northwest Coast of North America, gives 

 1,203 toises, or 7,710 feet, as the result obtained by Gardner for 

 the height of this mountain ; but there is certainly some great error 

 here, as there can be no doubt that the mountain is much higher 

 than that. Berghaus giv^es 16,500 feet, and another German 

 authority 18,360 feet. The New American Cyclopedia and Col- 

 ton's Atlas give 13,000 feet. It is certain that no barometer has 

 ever been carried to the top of Mt. Hood, and there is no published 

 record of any accurate trigonometrical measurements of it. It 

 was not ascended by Wilkes' expedition, although he several times 

 speaks of intending to do so ; nor by any of the Pacific Rail Road 

 Surveying parties. The story current in the newspapers of the 

 mountain having been ascended by a party to a height of over 

 18,000 feet, is beheved, on enquiry, to be without foundation. It 

 is this newspaper account which seems to have led the German 

 authority above referred to (^Zeitschrift filr Allgemeine Erdhmde) 

 into error. I learn from Dr. J. G. Cooper, however, that a rough 

 trigonometrical measurement of Mt. Hood was made, at the Dalles, 

 by Dr. A^ansant, L"". S. A., in 1860, which gave the height of 

 Hood as 11,934 feet. It was done bv measurement of the angle 



Proc. California Acad. Nat. Sci. Jan., 1363. 1 ^ 



