22 THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFOKNIA 



high volcanic cones of the Cascade Range, Mount 

 Pitt, the Three Sisters, Mounts Jefferson, Hood, St. 

 Helens, Adams, Rainier, Baker, and others, some 

 of them of considerable size, though none of them 

 approach the sea. Of these mountains Rainier, in 

 Washington, is the highest, and iciest. Its dome-like 

 summit, between 14,000 and 15,000 feet high, is 

 capped with ice, and eight glaciers, seven to twelve 

 miles long, radiate from it as a center, and form 

 the sources of the principal streams of the State. 

 The lowest-descending of this fine group flows 

 through beautiful forests to within 3500 feet of the 

 sea-level, and sends forth a river laden with glacier 

 mud and sand. On through British Columbia and 

 southeastern Alaska the broad, sustained mountain- 

 chain, extending along the coast, is generally glacier- 

 bearing. The upper branches of nearly all the main 

 canons and fiords are occupied by glaciers, which 

 gradually increase in size, and descend lower until 

 the high region between Mount Fairweather and 

 Mount St. Elias is reached, where a considerable 

 number discharge into the waters of the ocean. 

 This is preeminently the ice-land of Alaska and of 

 the entire Pacific Coast. 



Northward from here the glaciers gradually di 

 minish in size and thickness, and melt at higher 

 levels. In Prince William Sound and Cook's Inlet 

 many fine glaciers are displayed, pouring from the 

 surrounding mountains ; but to the north of latitude 

 62 few, if any, glaciers remain, the ground being 

 mostly low and the snowfall light. Between lati 

 tude 56 and 60 there are probably more than 5000 

 glaciers, not counting the smallest. Hundreds of 



