St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1891-11-05
THE LAST ST. ELIAS EXPEDI-
TON.

ne M OuHl Ol. ElldS SApeulllOI,
led by Mr.. ]. c. Russell, which has
Just returned from Alaska, will add
MANY interesting facts to our knowl-
edge of that region, for it has reveal
ed new part of it. The explorers
did not succeed in reaching the sum-
nit of the great mountain. This
feat would have added brilliancy to
their laurels, but it was not a part
of the work committed to them.
Their purpose was to study the
geology, topography, and glacial
phenomena of the ST. Elias region.
We learn from the brief summary
of the work sent from Seattle that
they have restored to the snowy
mountain some thousands of feet of
stature of which it was unjustlv de-
prived by the imperfect trigonometri-
cal measurements of last year.
Everybody was much surprised when
the explorers of 1890 returned with
the information that Mount St.
Elias, which was supposed to over
top all other North American sum-
mits, was only 1923 feet high.
Some time elapsed before the COM
putations were subjected at Washing
ton to scrutiny which prove that
they were erroneous. Mr.. Russell in
June last measured a three-mile base
line at Icy bay, about ten miles from
the foot of the mountain, and though
his calculations have not yet been
reduced, and he cannot therefore give
the exact figures, he says the height
of St. Elias is between 5000 and
10000 feet The computa ton of the
United States Coast Survey in 1874
gave height Of 1880 feet. In the
absence of decisive figures as to the
height of Mexico's greatest summit,
St. Elias may still be permitted,
claim the highest elevation.
For the first time the north side OF
St. Elias has been visited, and the
mountain has now been inspected on
all sides. 1t was thought that the
north might offer better advantages
for reaching the top than the west
side and southeast angle, where the
previous attempts have been made.
This years effort to scale the noun
tain was rewarded better than the
other attempts, for Russell succeeded
in reaching height of about H.
500 feet, surprising his record last
year and also that of Topham in
1888, who endeavored to zig-zag his
wav up the west face, and was com
PEELED to turn back after ascending
II ,45O feet. Topham expressed the
opinion that the expedition should
try to ascend from the north. One
of the chiefs of the Yakatat natives
had told him that he had once, while
hunting goats, gone to the north
side of the peak and found that the
northern face was much less steer
than the southern. Whether or no
Mr.. Russell found the conditions fo
CHM bing more favorable, 1t is gra tify
ing that he was able to do so mucl
work on the hitherto unknown
slope. 1t had been thought possibl
that northeast of St. Elias Their
might be some unknown and over
topping peak. All that region ha
been spread before the gaze of ex
plorers this summer for the first time
but though Russell saw many sum
mits rising to heights from 10, 900 t
$4,000 feet, he saw none that cOul
outrank St. Elias.
The region of the St. Elias Alps
covered as it is with glaciers man
hundreds of feet in thickness, is sti
in the condition in which Switzerlan
is supposed to have been during tn
last glacial epoch. Both Russell an
Topham say that the Alaska
glaciers are now retreating. Geo
ogists may therefore be able to OF
serve whether the great ice stream
which the explorers describe al
exerting such erosive action as ha
been attributed to their extinct A
pine predecessors. No other access
BILE region offers so good an OF
portunity for the study of man
features of glacial action on a lare
scale; and this is why, as Mr.. Russo
says, the region is full of interest t
scientific men, and the work III