Lofty Regions of the Globe 15 



New York to San Francisco passes at an altitude of 2500 meters; 

 side by side, Mount Brown (4850 meters) and Mount Hooker (5100 

 meters) . The mountains along the Pacific make way for the Oregon 

 between the Sierra Nevada in California, the highest summits of 

 which are Mount Whitney (4500 meters), Mount Tyndall (4380 

 meters), and Mount Shasta (4400 meters), and the chain of the 

 Cascades, with Mount Baker (3390 meters), Mount Hood (3420 

 meters) , and Mount Rainier (4400 meters) as the highest peaks. 



At the northern end, on the very shore of the ocean, rise the 

 highest peaks in North America, Mount Fairweather (4620 meters) 

 and Mount Saint-Elias (5440 meters) . Finally, in Alaska, the vol- 

 cano Gorjaloja ends the immense American chain, which has 

 stretched for more than 4500 leagues. 



Africa. Africa is far from possessing chains of mountains which 

 can compare with the Himalayas, the Andes, or even the Alps. 

 And yet the belt of mountains at a short distance from the sea, 

 which surrounds the vast plateaux of the interior, rises at different 

 points to considerable heights. The Atlas range, which in French 

 and Tunisian possessions never reaches 3000 meters, exceeds this 

 height sometimes in Morocco, where Mount Miltsin measures 3470 

 meters. In Abyssinia, the circle of mountains around Gondar and 

 Lake Zana rises at certain points to 4425 meters (Abba-Jaret) , even 

 to 4620 meters (Raz-Daschan) ; the pass of Buhait is 4520 meters 

 high. On the shore of the Atlantic, the peak of Fernando-Po rises 

 to 3260 meters, and opposite it, the Kamerun Mountains, perhaps 

 the Bdav {6xw a ) °f Hanno, reach to 4000 meters. In the colony of 

 Natal, the chain of Drakenberg displays summits more than 3000 

 meters high: Cathkin Peak (3150 meters) . Finally, almost on the 

 equator, near the shore of the Indian Ocean, the Kenia mountains 

 are 5000 meters high, and Kilimandjaro raises its crest, clothed in 

 perpetual snow, to 6110 meters. Let us add that in the interior a 

 lofty mountain has been noted, the peaks of which are more than 

 3000 meters high; it is Alantika, which is connected to the Kamerun 

 Mountains. 



Islands. The islands, which remain to be discussed, contain only 

 a small number of mountains the height of which is great enough 

 for their ascent to bring on physiological disturbances. The highest 

 point of the Australian Alps, Mount Kosciusko, is only 2190 meters 

 high. But in New Zealand, several exceed 3000 meters, and the 

 giant of the southern island, Mount Cook, is 3770 meters high. New 

 Guinea contains several volcanic mountains which are no less lofty- 

 than those of New Zealand; the Owen Stanley range, the highest, 



