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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC. MAGAZINE 



treme exertion and present many obsta- 

 cles to be overcome. The journey 

 throughout its entire length being oyer 

 glaciers, the unique problem of combin- 

 ing arctic exploration with mountain 

 climbing is experienced. 



GLACIERS AND SNOW FIELDS 



The eastern part, especially the coastal 

 slope of the Saint Elias and Fairweather 

 ranges, is the only portion of Alaska 

 which bears out the popular belief that 

 the territory is covered with ice and 

 snow. Here in the high mountains there 

 are many Alpine glaciers and snow fields, 

 but the Malaspina Glacier is the largest 

 single ice field and, indeed, the most 

 extensive on the North American con- 

 tinent. This great piedmont glacier 

 spreads out over the coastal plain, pre- 

 senting a front of 85 miles to the sea, 

 and, including the neve fields which feed 

 it, covers an area of 5,000 square miles. 



This ice field is most vividly described 

 by Russell,* who viewed it from the 

 upper slopes of Mount Saint Elias, as "a 

 vast, Snow-covered region, limitless in 

 expanse, through which hundreds and 

 probably thousands of barren, angular 

 peaks project. There was not a stream, 

 not a lake, not a vestige of vegetation in 

 sight. A more desolate or more utterly 

 lifeless land one never beheld." The 

 view of this ice field and the adjacent 

 mountains as seen from the ocean is 

 superb in the extreme. 



This southern chain of mountains con- 

 tinues to the westward, where it is 

 known as the Chugach Mountains, pass- 

 ing around the head of Prince William 

 Sound and terminating in the Kenai 

 Peninsula, where it forms little more 

 than highlands. Just north of Prince 

 William Sound the range is a mass of 

 snow-clad peaks, in the valleys of which 

 are hundreds of square miles of ice, al- 

 most entirely unexplored. 



Alaska's highest volcanoes 



About 150 miles to the northwest of 

 Mount Saint Elias are the wonderfully 

 impressive peaks of the Wrangell group, 



♦National Geographic Magazine, May, 1891. 



which owe their existence largely to vul- 

 canism. There are many peaks in this 

 group, but four, because of excessive 

 altitude, grandeur, or activity, demand 

 special attention. 



Mount Sanford, the highest, reaches 

 an elevation of 16,200 feet, while Black- 

 burn is a close second at 16,140 feet. 

 Both of these mountains are extinct vol- 

 canoes. Mount Wrangell is a great flat 

 dome 14,000 feet high and about 25 

 miles in diameter at its base. It is the 

 only active volcano of inland Alaska. 

 Its summit is snow-covered, but sur- 

 rounding the vent is a coating of ash 

 renewed intermittently by rolling clouds 

 of smoke and vapor which are sent up 

 from the crater. Mount Drum, also a 

 volcanic cone, but now deeply dissected, 

 though but 12,000 feet high, is the most 

 impressive one of the group. Situated 

 as it is, well out in the Copper River 

 plain, with nothing to detract from its 

 grandeur, its isolation commands the ob- 

 server's undivided attention. 



Much of the Wrangell range is 

 covered with ice and perennial snow, 

 forming long, finger-like Alpine glaciers, 

 which extend in every direction. 



On the north, west, and south sides of 

 the group the melting snow and ice of 

 the glaciers form the tributaries of the 

 Copper River, which flows southward 

 through the Copper River basin, and 

 breaks through the Chugach Mountains 

 at about longitude 145 °, for the most 

 part in a" narrow canyon. Though the 

 Copper River in stretches is very swift 

 and dangerous, it serves as a route of 

 approach to the inland gold and copper 

 fields. The canyons and rapids of the 

 lower river, though serious obstacles to 

 navigation, have not prevented the use of 

 this route. 



THE ADVENT OE RAILWAYS 



The onward march of civilization and 

 development, which has opened up our 

 Western States so wonderfully, is steadily 

 at work in Alaska. Already the screech 

 of the locomotive has broken the silence 

 of the mountain fastnesses, startling the 

 mountain goats and sheep from their 



