Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-06-22
PYRAMIDS OF SNOW.
Beautiful Mount Shasta and the
Other Oregon Earth Giants.
THE SOURCE OF THE SACRAMENTO,
Wonders Of Crater Lake, in Which no
Line Has Reached q Bottom.
STREAMS THAT DELIGHT sPORTSMES
CORRESPONDENTS OF THE DISPATCH,


way on this continent which offers to tour.
lists such unique and imposing variety ol
mountain and forest scenery as the Oregon
and California, or Shasta route, which con.
meets San Francisco with Portland. For many
hours after leaving Sacramento the train
follows the banks of the Sacramento river
whose water in this upper part is as clear a,
the Rhine in Switzerland. No fewer thar
IS times does the train cross the winding
river, which at every turn offers new
picturesque view.
But it is not until Mt. Shasta come,
into view that the real grandeur of this
route is made evident. Mr.. Bryce in hi.
american Commonwealth" insinuates thai
there is little fine scenery in this country
but if there is another railroad
in the world which skirts the
base of an isolated snow mountain over
$4,000 feet in height, and so vast in cir
cumference that it takes the train five OF
six hours to get around it, I have not seen
it or heard of it. And Shasta is only one
of half dozen snow peaks which may be
admired on this route and its continuation
north to Tacoma and Seattle.
A WONDERFUL SERIES.
about what may be called the Oregon sys-
tenn of mountain peaks (since Oregon once
embraced all this region), beginning with
Shasta "a, 440 feet) in Northern California,
and including the Three Sisters e, 800
feet), Mt. Jefferson (9,000 feet) and Mt.
Hood 200 teet), in Oregon, and Mts.
St. Helens g. ,750 feet), Adams $40 feet),
and Tacoma "a, 40 in Washington. Else
whereas in Switzerland, or along the
Canadian Pacific RaiIway-snow peaks are
always adjacent or tumbIed together in
irregular groups; and this is the case even
in the Sierra Nevada of Central California.
But the "Oregon" earth giants, from
Shasta to Tacoma, are all isolated peaks
separated by many miles from other peaks,
with only low range of mountains to con-
meet them; and this gives them grandeur
and individuality which is lacking in peaks
that simply form one of an irregular group.
As Mr.. Joaquin Miller POLITICALLY puts it !:
'Here the shining pyramids of white, start
ing sudden and solitary from the great black
sea of frs, standing as supporting pillars to
the dome of intense blue sky, startle, thrill
and delight you, though you have stood un-
moved before the sublimest scenes on
earth"
GRANDER THAN MT. WHITNEY.
It is owing to this isolation that Shasta is
the grandest mountain in California. Mt.
Whitney is several hundred feet higher, but
it stands in region where there are 100
peaks each over IL, 900 feet in height, and
therefore is not able to assert itself properly.
Moreover. Whitney is several hundred
miles further south, where the solar heat
disposes of the snow fields every summer
and does not compel them to seek the valley
in the shape of glaciers; whereas Shasta has
five glaciers, one of which is more than
three miles long. Jefferson, Hood and Ia
coma also have some fine glaciers, easily
accessible.
As compared with the mountains of Swift
erland, Shasta has this advantage, that,
whereas the former rarely, even in summer,
have the advantage of standing out against
clear, blue sky, which adds SO very much
to the sublimity OF the scene, Shasta rears
its snowy head day after day and month
after month into the cloudless azure. Late
in summer, however. it loses some of its
grandeur through the melting of most OF
its snow fields; and in this respect Mt. Hood
is superior to Shasta, as it keeps its snow
mantle throughout the usual Oregon sum-
mer.
VOLCANIC HEAT INSIDE.
Besides the California sun, the SHOWS of
Shasta have another enemy in the internal
volcanic heat which has not yet subsidized.
Shasta has its big craters, and there are
score of smaller ones in the lower neighbor-
ing cones. A few hundred feet below the
summit there Is hot sulphur spring. to
whose heat John Muir and Jerome Fay,
being caught in a snow storm in 1875, owed
the preservation of their lives.
One Of the best ways to realize the great
height of Shasta is by noting the very long
time the sun fingers on the mountain side
after it has set at Sissons, in Strawberry
Valley-fully half an hour. After it has
gone down. on dark nights in May, a soli-
tary star will arise Immediately over the
summit, looking at irss as if some venture
some climber had started a fire. Dwaried
by the distance, one does not realize how
jagged are the ridges of Shasta until the
evening sun casts their gray silhouettes on
the adjacent white snow fields.
One of the most interesting places Of this
vicinity is the source of the Sacramento
river. About a mile from Sissons at place
to which steps lead down from the railway
tracks, the water rushes out from several
springs in great volume, forming immedi-
ately trout brook of respectable size, which
hurries away in the new daylight as if glad
to have escaped its subterranean source.
FROM MT. sHAsTA's WEALTH OF SNOW.
These springs issue from under Mt. Shasta
and doubtless owe their being to the melting
of snow. and glacier ice by the internal vol
canic heat-a worthy origin of so romantic
a river as the Sacramento. Near these
springs is a valuable iron water spring
which is most valuable possession, now
that Sissons is getting to be a regular resort
for the San Franciscans, Portlanders and
Eastern tourists. not only on account of the
view of Shasta, but because of the beautiful
forest scenery and the excellent trout fish
ing in the neighboring McCloud river. Six
large rivers and many smaller ones are born
of Shasta and neighboring peaks, and it is
these icy streams that the trout and the salmon
delight in. The Sacramento itself, how
ever, does not afford any sport in this
vicinity.
After leaving Sissons, Shasta still re-
mains in sight for some time, for it takes
time even Tor a railway to get away from
a mountain of which it has been remarked
that "If it could be sawed off at the 1000
foot level, or 500 feet above the valley, the
oval plaen thus made would be 80 miles in
circumference. Some OF the views OF
Shasta alter leaving Sissons are even
grander than at that station, and in certain
atmospheric conditions the snow cone may
be seen floating, as it were, on mystic haze
resembling water.
A DIFFERENCE IN RAIN.
Passing on it becomes obvious at once that
the chief difference between Oregon and
California is comprised in the word rain.