416 STEPHEN R. CAPPS 
which join Kuskokwim and Yukon rivers to empty into Bering Sea. 
The name has commonly been used to include the mountains 
between the headwaters of Skwentna River and Mentasta Pass, 
but at its southern end the range is not sharply separated from the 
Chigmit Mountains of the Alaska Peninsula, although the con- 
stituent rocks of the two mountain masses are different and their 
axes, while parallel, do not coincide. At its east end the Alaska 
Range is directly continuous with the Nutzotin Mountains. The 
following descriptions are confined to that portion of the range 
which lies between meridians 144 and 153 west longitude. Con- 
sidered as a whole, the Alaska Range is a rugged mountain belt 
broken by but a few widely separated passes. In the region near the 
head of the Skwentna three breaks in the range are known which 
may be crossed by pack animals to the Kuskokwim basin. North 
of these passes the range becomes of impressive height and rugged- 
ness, culminating in two great peaks, Mount Foraker and Mount 
McKinley, with elevations of 17,000 and 20,300 feet respectively. 
Northeast of Mount McKinley the range decreases in height, and 
at the head of certain tributaries of Chulitna River is broken by one 
or two passes. East of Nenana River the range once more becomes 
rugged, the loftier peaks averaging about 8,ooo feet in height, 
although Mount Hayes reaches an elevation of over 13,700 feet. 
Delta River crosses the range in a low pass, east of which the highest 
peaks are from 8,000 to 10,000 feet in elevation. 
HISTORY OF EXPLORATION 
The first white man to cross the Alaska Range was Lieutenant 
Henry T. Allen, who discovered Mentasta Pass in 1885. West 
of this pass the mountains were unexplored until 1898, when J. E. 
Spurr’? crossed from the Skwentna basin to the Kuskokwim, 
Eldridge? ascended the Susitna and crossed Broad Pass to Nenana 
River, and Mendenhall,’ attached to an army exploratory party 
tJ. E. Spurr, ““A Reconnaissance in Southwestern Alaska, in 1808,” Twentieth 
Ann. Rept. U.S. Geol. Survey, Pt. 7, 1900, pp. 31-264. 
2G. H. Eldridge, ‘““A Reconnaissance in the Susitna Basin and Adjacent Terri- 
tory, Alaska, in 1808,” zbid., pp. 1-30. 
3 W. C. Mendenhall, ““A Reconnaissance from Resurrection Bay to the Tanana 
River, Alaska,” ibid., pp. 271-340. 
