GLACIERS ON THE PACIFIC COAST. 19 



than from eighteen to twenty-five hundred feet. It is cre- 

 vassed in a series of immense chasms, some of them two thou- 

 sand feet long by thirty and even fifty feet wide. In one or 

 two places the whole surface is broken with concentric systems 

 of fissures, and these are invaded by a set of radial breaks 

 which shatter the ice into a confusion of immense blocks. 

 Snow-bridges similar to those in the Swiss glaciers are the 

 only means of crossing these chasms, and lend a spice of 

 danger to the whole examination. The region of the terminal 

 moraines is quite unlike that of the Alps, a larger portion of 

 the glacier itself being covered by loads of angular debris. 

 The whole north face of the mountain is one great body of 

 ice, interrupted by a few sharp lava-ridges which project 

 above its general level. The veins of blue ice, the planes of 

 stratification, were distinctly observed, but neither moulins 

 nor regular dirt-bands are present. Numerous streams, how- 

 ever, flow over the surface of the ice, but they happen to pour 

 into crevasses which are at present quite wide.* 



From Mount Shasta to the Columbia River the moun- 

 tains support many glaciers of the third order. Mount Jef- 

 ferson, Diamond Peak, and the Three Sisters are reported 

 by Mr. Diller and Professor Newberry as containing numer- 

 ous glaciers, and " as affording the most interesting field for 

 glacial studies in the United States, with the exception of 

 Alaska." The glaciers upon Mount Hood have been more 

 fully explored, and are of great interest, though, owing to 

 the moderate elevation (11,000 feet) and the limited snow- 

 fields, they are small in size. The summit of this mountain 

 is occupied by a volcanic crater about half a mite in diameter. 

 This serves as a fountain out of which there flow three 

 streams of ice extending down the flanks, as glaciers, for a 

 distance of about two miles, their subglacial streams form- 

 ing the head-waters of the White Sandy, and the Little 

 Sandy Rivers. 



In the State of Washington, a short distance north of the 

 Columbia River, the Cascade Mountains culminate in a clus- 



* ''American Journal of Science," vol. ci, 1871, pp. 158-161. 



