GLACIERS OX MOUNT SHASTA. 27 



when this mountain, which is about 10,600 feet high, has been seen by the 

 Survey. These snow spots, the lowest of which hes about 2,000 feet below 

 the summit, have appeared of about the same size and form when seen in 

 different years during the summer months. 



From Lassen's Peak as far as Mount Shasta there is no permanent accumula- 

 tion of snow ; but on the last-named grand volcanic cone, which is over 14,000 

 feet high, there seem to be alwaj's large bodies lasting throughout the sum- 

 mer, and extending down to points 6,000 or 7,000 feet below the summit. 

 In September, 1862, when the quantity for that year was at a minimum, the 

 cone of Shasta looked dazzlingly white at a distance, as seen from the south. 

 On approaching the mountain to within a few mile.s, the ridges and crests 

 between the ravines furrowing its sides were found to be bare ; and on 

 actuallj' climbing to its summit it seemed difficult to understand how, when 

 so much of the upper part of the cone was uncovered, it could appear, fifty 

 miles off", to be one unbroken mass of snow. This was the year following 

 a winter of extreme precipitation; and, judging from photographs taken by 

 Mr. Watkins in 1870, and from information received at various times,* there 

 have been seasons when there was much less snow on this mountain than 

 there was when we climbed it. 



At the time Mount Shasta was ascended by the writer, in company with a 

 party of the State Geological Survey (September, 1862), nothing was seen or 

 known of the existence of any glaciers on or near this peak. The on\y ap- 

 proach to ice ob.served was near the summit, where a large, nearly level area 

 was found to be covered with snow, described in the account of the trij) after- 

 wards published as being " almost icy in texture," and intersected by crev- 

 ices from two to three feet deep.f This might perhaps pass as neve, but 

 could not by any possibility have been called a glacier. This ascent was 

 made on the southwestern side of the mountain. Later in the season Messrs. 

 Brewer and King, of the Geological Survey, continued the reconnaissance of 

 Sliasta by a journey along its northern base ; but still no glaciers were no- 

 ticed. Some years later, in 1870, Mr. King, in making a detailed examina- 

 tion of the mountain, discovered several large glaciers, of Avhich only a 

 preliminary account has been published, t 



* Especially from Mr. J. H. Sisson, mentioned in Geology of California, Vol. I. p. 332, as residing near 

 the base of Shasta, and as having frequently acted as a guide to its summit. 



t See Geology of California, Vol. 1. p. 340. 



J A full report of these explorations of the Pacific Coast volcanoes by Messrs. King, Hague, Enmions, and Wil- 

 son has never been published. Mr. King gave a short account of liis investigations around Shasta in an article in 



