Birmingham age-herald., 1895-01-03
SEEING LONG DISTANCES.
! How Far Away Has the Human Eye De-
 tectcd Another Ohicct oi, Enrfho

tecfcd Another Object on Earth?
 Tho recent claim of the United States signal service to havo transmitted hclio- . graph signals over a distance of 1S3 miles, 5 and of tho United States coast survey ard gcodctic survey to have beaten that many years since between Mount IIcina and Mount Shasta, over 109 miles, has started mountain climbers. to make all sorts of guesses and assertions about the distances they ought to sec and the distances they do sec. It would appear that one of the enthusiastic climbers of Mount Hood, in Oregon, made tho statement that from the summit he saw the peak of Mount Shasta, 276 miles to tho southwark Of course he was doubted, but principally because the curvature of the earth would prevent the intervisibility of the peaks ard so an ap- peal was made to young officer of the United States engineering corps, who com putcd tho distance at which these peaks would bo intcrvisible, Mount IIood is given as II, 75s feet above the sea level and Mount Shasta as 14, 40, and the dis tanco or tho latest charts is 278T miles. By his computation tho total visible dis tancc' was 277 miles, which gave lone mile to spare' over his assumed distance of 276 miles, upon which Tho Oregonian and some of the New York papers have as stunned tho intervisibility of the peaks, and that tho mountain climber was right in his declaration of seeing Mount Shasta.
 That Is an very pretty, Professor David son says, If tho ocean intcryened between the two peaks, when tho line of intervisi bility would be tangent to the surface of the sea at Q point nearer to Mount Hood but unfortunately tho surface between these two peaks is the backbone of the Cascade range of mountains, aud tho in tervisibility is an absolute physical impos- sibility. Wo must turn to Alaska if we expect to obtain the longest lines of in tervisibility, because tho great mountain peaks like Elias and Logan of the St Elias rango immediately dominate curv- ing coast line. The greatest authenticated distance at which these great master peaks havo been visible from sea was by Captain H. E. Nichols of the United States navy when commanding the United States gun boat Pinta. He was closo upon Middleton island, of tho approaches to Prince Will liam sound, in well determined position, when hc.had view of Mount Elias to the east northeast and Mount Wrangell to tho northward. The former was distant 1s7 statute miles and the latter 213 miles. 1t may havo been possible that Mount Elias was only part of the mass he saw, and Mount Logan, 20 miles to tho north by east from Mount Elias and 9,51a feet elevation, was tho summit of the visible mass In this case tho distance was 204 miles.
 It may be mentioned that the consensus of opinion of men who have been through Alaska and have seen Mount Wrangell is that the highest mountain mass is just under 62 degrees latitude and between 147 and 14S degrees longitude or 166 miles west northwest from Wrangell. This would put tho unnamed Mount Wrangell, Mounts Elias, Fairweather, Cook, Cridon, La Perousc, etc., of the Mount Elias range in one limo extending through nearly GOO miles.-San Francisco Bulletin