190 I. C. Russell — Expedition to Mount St. Elias. 



It was intended that Mr. Kerr's report, forming Appendix B, 

 should contain a detailed record of the triangulation executed 

 last summer, but a. careful revision of his work by a committee of 

 the National Geographic Society led to the conclusion that the 

 results were not of sufficient accuracy to set at rest the questions 

 raised by the discrepancies in earlier measurements of the height 

 of Mount St. Elias ; and as the work will probably be revised and 

 extended during the summer of 1891, only the map forming plate 

 8 will be published at this time. Some preliminary publications 

 of elevations have been made, but these must be taken as ap- 

 proximations merely.* 



By consulting the map forming plate 8 it will be seen that 

 Mounts Cook, Vancouver, Irving, Owen, etc., are not in the St. 

 Elias range. Neither do they form a distinct range either topo- 

 graphically or geologically. Each of these mountains is an inde- 

 pendent uplift, although they may have some structural con- 

 nection, and are of about the same geological age. Mount Cook 

 and the peaks most intimately associated with it are composed 

 mainly of sandstone and shale belonging to the Yakutat system. 

 Mounts Vancouver and Irving are probably of the same char- 

 acter, but definite proof that this is the case has not been ob- 

 tained. 



The St. Elias uplift is distinct and well marked, both geolog- 

 ically and topographically, and deserves to be considered as a 

 mountain range. The limits of the range have not been deter- 

 mined, but, so far as known, its maxim una elevation is at Mount 

 St. Elias. The range stretches away from this culminating point 

 both northeastward and northwestward, and has a well-marked 

 V-shape. The angle formed by the two branches of the range 

 where they unite at Mount St. Elias is, by estimate, about 140°. 

 Each arm of the V is determined by a fault, or perhaps more 

 accurately by a series of faults having the same general course, 

 along which the orographic blocks forming the range have bee"n 

 upheaved. The structure of the range is monoclinal, and re- 



* The shore-line of the map, plate 8, and the positions of the initial 

 points or base-line of the triangulation are from the work of the United 

 States Coast Survey. The extreme 'western portion is from maps published 

 by the New York Times and Topham expeditions. All the topographic 

 data are by Mr. Kerr, and all credit for the work and all responsibility for 

 its accuracy rest with him. The nomenclature is principally my own, and 

 has been approved by a committee of the National Geographic Society. 



