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A WEEKLY ILLLblKAlED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



' ' To the solid ground 

 Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for a^'e." — Wordsworth. 



THURSDAY, MAY 3, 1900. 



MOUNT ST. ELI AS. 

 La spedizione di sua Aliezza Reale it Principe Luigi 

 Atnedeo di Saz>oia, Duca degli Abruzzi al Monte Sant' 

 Elia {Alaska) 1897. Da Dottore Filippo de Filippi ; 

 illustrata da Vittorio Sella. Pp. xvii + 273 ; with 34 

 plates, 4 panoramic views, 2 maps and 115 figures 

 in text. A beneficio delle Guide Alpine Italiane. 

 (Milano : U. Hoepli, 1900.) 



MOUNT ST. ELIAS, with an altitude, as now ascer- 

 tained, of 18,092 feet, stands — a majestic corner- 

 post — exactly at the angle where the Alaskan boundary- 

 line ceases to run parallel to the coast and strikes north- 

 ward along the 141st meridian, and its summit is now 

 generally acknowledged to lie on the Canadian side of 

 the frontier. Whether it maintain its supposed pre- 

 eminence among the mountains of the North American 

 continent, or whether it eventually prove to be overtopped 

 by Mount Logan, its great neighbour on the north, or, as 

 the most recent explorations seem to indicate, by Mount 

 McKinley, one of the yet unvisited peaks to the west- 

 ward, it must, from its commanding position on the 

 verge of the open ocean, always impress the imagination 

 as the grandest of the Alaskan Chain. In recalling the 

 fact that the mountain was for long erroneously supposed 

 to be a volcano, Mr. Douglas Freshfield has told us, on 

 the authority of the poet himself, that Tennyson had 

 Mount St. Elias in mind when he described the land- 

 scape of a volcano among snow as one of the pictures on 

 the walls of " The Palace of Art " (see T/ic Alpine 

 Journal, vol. xix. p. 174). 



So far as our present knowledge goes, nowhere else on 

 the face of the globe is there so great a vertical range of 

 snow and ice as among these Alaskan mountains. On 

 Mount St. Elias the permanent snow-line comes down 

 to within about 3000 feet of the sea, while the enormous 

 glaciers nourished by the excessive humidity of the 

 climate not only descend to sea-level, but unite and 

 spread out in a vast plain of ice covering an estimated 

 area of 1500 square miles between the foot of the 

 mountain and the ocean. 



VOL. 62 1 



NO. 1592, 



Thus entrenched in ice sheets, so that even its base 

 is defended, it is not surprising that the mountain with- 

 stood several attacks before it was conquered. The first 

 attempt was made, in 1886, by Messrs. Libbey, Schwatka 

 and Seton-Karr ; the next, in 1888, by Messrs. Topham, 

 Broke and Williams ; the third and fourth, by Prof. \. C. 

 Russell, in 1890 and 1891 ; and the fifth, by Prof. H. G. 

 Bryant, in 1897, almost simultaneously with the successful 

 Italian expedition. Of these explorers, Prof. Russell 

 achieved in every way the most important results, bad 

 weather alone preventing his complete success in 1891, 

 after an altitude of 14,500 feet had been attained and the 

 practicability of the ascent had been demonstrated. Prof. 

 Russell correctly determined the height of the mountain, 

 and carried out investigations upon its physical charac- 

 teristics which proved of high scientific importance. Lieut. 

 Seton-Karr had previously called attention to the sin- 

 gular condition of the glaciers at the foot of the moun- 

 tain, where immense piles of morainic debris, in places 

 overgrown with dense vegetation, hide the marginal surface 

 of the ice ; but it was not until Prof Russell published his 

 more adequate descriptions that geologists fully recog- 

 nised the value of the phenomena of the "piedmont " ice 

 in elucidating the conditions of ice-covered lowlands in 

 general during the Glacial Period, and especially during 

 its closing stages. So closely has Prof. Russell's name 

 become associated with the mountain, that one cannot 

 stifle a regret that the satisfaction of being first upon the 

 summit did not fall to his lot. In the volume before us, 

 however, we are glad to find a graceful acknowledgment 

 of the work of previous explorers, in a chapter having for 

 its motto this quotation, from Mr. D. Freshfield : — 



"Those who vyent first and opened the way are not less 

 entitled to credit than those who came afterwards and 

 reaped the fruit of their predecessors' labours." 



The leader of the Italian expedition, H.R.H. Prince 

 Louis of Savoy, in planning an ascent higher than the 

 Alps could offer, had at first contemplated an attack upon 

 one of the great peaks of the Himalayas. Forced by un- 

 favourable circumstances to abandon this idea, he turned 

 for consolation to Mount St. Elias. He could not have 

 selected a more princely amusement, or a better exercise 

 in skilful organisation and patient endurance. That he 



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