GENERAL FEATURES. 615 
St. Helens, Hood, Jefferson or Vancouver, M’ Laughlin or Pitt, and 
Shasty. ‘To the southward other high peaks range along the Sierra 
Nevada, whose snowy tops are occasionally seen from Sutter’s, sixty 
miles up the Sacramento. At the pass near the head of the Ame- 
rican Fork, Captain Fremont found the height 9,338 feet, which 
exceeds by nearly two thousand feet the elevation of the South Pass 
in the Rocky Mountains; and points in the range near by were still 
higher by several thousand feet. The Sierra appears to extend into 
the Californian Peninsula. 
The main body of the Cascade Range in Oregon, is seldom over five 
or six thousand feet in elevation. Its heights are therefore but hills 
in comparison with the lofty cones above enumerated, which rise out 
of the chain. These towering summits stand in solitary grandeur, 
wrapped about in perpetual snows. 
Off the mouth of the Columbia, at sea, Mount St. Helens may be 
seen in the eastern horizon. The snows descend with unbroken 
surface halfway to its base. It is not less than fifteen thousand feet 
in height, and has been estimated at sixteen thousand. Mount Hood, 
thirty miles south of the Columbia, is scarcely as elevated, for the 
black rocks of its summit show through a ragged coat of snow. Yet 
it is not less majestic. It opens to view from the southern gateway of 
Vancouver, rising in lofty sublimity above the crouching hills at its 
base. Mount Rainier, to the east of Nisqually, and Mount Baker 
farther north, have the same bold features. Mount Shasty is another 
of these hoary summits. A heavy mist covered the region as we 
approached it. Gazing up intently for the peak, visible in the earlier 
part of the day, we barely discovered some lights and shades far above 
us, which produced, through the indefiniteness of the view, a vision 
of immensity such as pertains to the vast universe rather than to our 
own planet. ‘The Cascade Range is, therefore, of interest, not only 
topographically, but also for the sublimity of its views; and we shall 
also find, as we proceed, that its economical and geological importance 
cannot be over-estimated. 
The Coast Range is a region of hills, ridges, and peaks, mostly 
from a few hundred to three thousand feet in height, and rarely rising 
to twice this elevation. It lies directly along the coast, forming a 
border of ten to thirty miles, and presenting in general little that is 
striking in outline. Viewed from the mouth of the Columbia, there 
was one broken summit to the southeast, calculated to engage the 
attention; it is called by the Indians, Swalalahos, and has also been 
