Following the general belt of the Coast Ranges still farther northward, we come to the splendid group of forest-clothed mountains, with usually snow-covered summits, situated to the west of Puget Sound, and known as the Olympic Mountains. This magnificent range is in full view from Victoria, Seattle, and Tacoma, and would be far-famed for its grandeur were it not for its near rival, the still more lofty Cascade Range.
There are several fine, sharp peaks in the Olympics that have never been scaled, the highest of which, Mount
Olympus, rises 8,150 feet above the sea. Owing to the excessive humidity and other favourable climatic conditions, these mountains are clothed with magnificent forests up to an elevation of about 7,000 feet. On account of the ruggedness of the country, the extreme density of the tangled undergrowth, and the obstructions formed by the fallen moss- and lichen-covered trees, this region is extremely difficult to traverse, and to-day is the least known of the continental portion of the United States. On the north the excessively rugged Olympic peninsula is bordered by a deep, broad fiord known as the Strait of Fuca. To the north of this formerly ice-filled channel lies Vancouver Island, the central and northern portion of which is mountainous. The highest summit on the island rises about 7,500 feet above the sea, and a considerable area in its central part has an elevation of over 2,000 feet.
The Olympics, together with the mountains of Vancouver and Queen Charlotte Islands, and the northern extension of the same belt, embraced in part within the mainland of British Columbia and southeastern Alaska, have been termed the "Vancouver Mountains" by Canadian geographers. The northern boundary of this mountain system, justly named in honour of the celebrated English explorer who mapped large portions of the northwest coast about a century since, remains indefinite, and cannot be determined until geologists have made more thorough explorations of the land it occupies. The leading geographical features of this region, as remarked in a preceding chapter, are due to the deep dissection, by streams and glaciers, of an elevated table-land. When the ice-streams melted, the sea was permitted to enter the valleys, so as to form numerous deep, narrow, steep-walled fiords (Fig. 11). The coast is, in fact, the most ragged of any portion of the border of the continent. All but the higher summits are clothed with a dense mantle of vegetation, the upper limit of which decreases in elevation when followed northward, from about 7,000 feet in the Olympics to approximately 2,500 feet in southern Alaska. Perennial snow exists in the higher valleys and amphitheatres of the Olympics, but the
presence of true glaciers in that group of peaks has not been demonstrated. When followed northward the snow-line becomes lower and lower, and well-defined alpine glaciers are known to exist in many of the valleys, more especially on the mainland of British Columbia and southeastern Alaska. There streams of ice descend lower and lower with increase in latitude, and to the north of Stickeen River, in a number of instances, enter the fiords which connect with the ocean and become tide-water glaciers.
To the west of Lynn Canal, and extending to beyond Copper River, is the most rugged portion of North America, and contains also some of the highest mountain-peaks on the continent thus far measured.
The region of high mountains in Alaska and the adjacent portion of Canada begins on the east in the group of magnificent peaks which cluster about Mount Fairweather as a centre and extend westward, with a breadth of some 80 miles, to beyond Mount St. Elias. Farther westward, beyond Copper River, other great mountains are known to exist. One of these, Mount McKinley, has an elevation of 20,400 feet, and so far as now known is the highest peak in North America.
The highest summit to the east of Copper River is Mount Logan, 19,500 feet. This superb ice-sheathed peak is situated in Canada about 40 miles from the coast and 12 miles east of the one hundred and forty-first meridian. Second in rank is Mount St. Elias, 18,070 feet, situated close to the one hundred and forty-first meridian, and within the territory belonging to the United States. These two summits are the highest in a land of lofty snow-covered mountains, and for this reason have claimed a large share of attention. There are many neighbouring peaks, however, that are wonderfully magnificent, but only a few of them have been measured and many of them are still unnamed. Only one of the high mountains of Alaska, namely, Mount St. Elias, has been climbed. This splendid feat of mountaineering was accomplished by Prince Luigi, of Savoy, in 1899.
In southern Alaska the snow-line is only about 2,500
feet above tide, and a large number of magnificent glaciers descend to sea-level, and many of them actually enter the ocean. All of the valleys and basins among the higher summits are occupied by snow-fields and glaciers. The general covering of ice and snow as well as the ruggedness of the land makes this the most difficult of all the mountainous portions of North America to traverse.