Perhaps the most prominent feature which attracts the eye of a visitor upon his arrival in the Pacific Northwest consists of the mountain ranges with their towering snowcapped peaks, forming, as it were, ladders reaching from the green vales of earth to the blue vaults of heaven. Silhouetted against the sky in the hazy distance, they are noted by the westward bound traveler as soon as he reaches the highest point in the divide of the Rockies, while to the mariner groping his way eastward upon the Pacific Ocean they offer the first evidence of the nearness of the welcome land.

[MOUNT BAKER FORTY MILES EAST OF BELLINGHAM.]

These mountains mean much to the state of Washington, both for their scenic grandeur and for the favorable influence they exert on the climate and on the lives of the people who build their homes in the valleys below. Their supremacy is reflected by the thermometer, the barometer, and the aerometer; for they help regulate the temperature, the rainfall, and the wind's velocity. They form great repositories for the waters that feed the streams and keep full the cities' aqueducts. Within their immeasurable depths lie buried huge deposits of precious and useful metals, besides vast fields of bituminous coal. Their lower zones provide fertile and safe localities for the growth of Washington's big timber, while the alpine meadows above secure for the timid deer and ptarmigan asylums of temporary freedom from too frequent disturbance by prowling huntsmen. Still higher are the rugged bare prominences, reserved for the wild goat or mountain sheep, and the snow fields traversed by the more venturesome seeking to gain the summits. Everywhere the true sportsman finds ample opportunity for proving his prowess, while trailing the beast to its lair, and the sight-seeking mountaineer is fully rewarded for all the struggle required to reach some dizzy height.

Within the immense bosoms of these mountains nestle innumerable lakes, beauteous beyond compare, near whose shady shores is many a sequestered spot, most tempting to the camper who loves the mountain region; and many a brook goes trickling over its stony course to join the rivers below, pausing here and there in some shady dell to create a deep pool for luring the fisherman, or hurling itself over some lofty precipice as a waterfall of wonderful magnitude and magnificence.

The mountains are a link connecting us with the past. They remind us perhaps of the period when volcanoes belched forth their fiery refuse, or of the era when the sea covered most of what is now land. Indestructible they stand and their rocky heights are in places insurmountable. The works of man trespass everywhere else, but these huge pillars of the ages rise in their majestic splendor and with sublime dignity seem to say: "Thus far and no further! We will preserve and guard your water and fuel supply. We will protect you from the furies of the elements and produce materials for building your palaces. We will create charming nooks where you may camp under the clear sky, and shady forests where you may pursue the chase. We will fill the brooks with swift darting fish; carpet the meadows with myriads of flowers, ferns, and shrubs; and paint you pictures undreamt of by men who have scorned our acquaintance. You are permitted to build roads whereby your Pullmans and your automobiles may cross to the other side, but not one of our number shall be moved nor its form be changed in the least, except by that same invisible power at whose mighty will we were brought into existence."