Notes On The Pacific Coast Glaciers.

• Main Author: Muir, John
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Scholarly Commons 1902
• Subjects: Environmentalist; naturalist; travel; conservation; national parks; John Muir; history; pamphlets; journal articles; speeches; writing; annotation; Pacific; Three Sisters; glacier; glaciers; Iceland; Alaska
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/jmb/272; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/context/jmb/article/1271/viewcontent/241.pdf

COLUMBIA GLACIER NOTES ON THE PACIFIC COAST GLACIERS BY JOHN MUIR HE glaciers that load the mountains of the Pacific Coast form a belt about two thousand miles long, of which the south half is mostly narrow and broken, the north continuous and broad. On the Sierra Nevada of California between latitudes 360 30' and 390 there are sixty-five small glaciers, distributed singly or in groups of three or four on the northern slopes of the highest peaks at an elevation of 11,000 to 12,000 feet above the sea. These slow-flowing, ragged- edged, residual masses, few of which are more than a mile in length or width, are all that is left of the great glaciers which once covered the Range. More than two-thirds of their number lie between latitudes 370 and 380 and form the highest fountains of the San Joaquin, Tuolumne, Merced, and Owens rivers. Mt. Shasta, near the northern boundary of the state, still supports a few shrinking remnants, the largest of which is about two and a half miles long and descends to within 9,000 feet of the level of the sea, the lowest point reached by any glacier in California. Northward along the Cascade Range through ("9) Oregon 120 JOHN MUIR and Washington, groups of larger residual glaciers still exist on all the highest mountains — The Three Sisters, Mounts Jefferson, Hood, St. Helens, Adams, Rainier, Baker and others. From Mount Rainier, the highest of this series of volcanic cones, eight glaciers five to ten miles long radiate, descending to within 3,000 or 4,000 feet of the sea level. On through British Columbia and southeastern Alaska the broad, lofty mountains along the coast are usually laden with ice. The upper branches of nearly all the canyons are occupied by glaciers, which increase in size gradually and descend lower until the region which is highest and snowiest, between latitudes 560 and 6i° is reached, where a considerable number discharge fleets of icebergs into the sea. This is the Iceland of Alaska, the region of greatest glacial abundance on the west side of the continent. It ...