The National tribune., 1902-05-15

for its fords, to Egypt for its deserts, to
Scotland for its lakes and hills, and turn
our backs upon similar scenes in our own
land? Our, country is not wanting IN
natural scenery of mountain, glacier, lake,
ford, and desert We have mountains
higher than the Alps icier and more rug
ged; glaciers whose lesser tributaries are
larger than the ice streams of Switzerland,
| the Caucasus, or the Hlmalayas-lndeed,
which are exceeded in area only by the ice
caps of Greenland and the Antarctic Con
tinent and lakes which are unrIyalled IN
beauty. The fiords of Alaska are far
| finer than the classic ones Of Norway, and
the wonderful charm of the desert is felt
as fully in our own West as in northern
| Africa. Moreover, there are few fea-
lures of which we hold monopoly; there
is but one Grand Canyon, one Niagara, one
| Yosemite, and the Geysers of the Yellow
stone are repeated nowhere on earth.
OF our thousands of high mountains,
the loftiest, so far as known, is Mount
Mckinley, in Alaska, which reaches an
altitude of 20,464 feet. Asia, with Mount
! Everest in the Himalayas, 29,OO2 feet
high, and South America, with Aconca-
qua, in the Andes, 22,90O feet, alone eX-
! coed this continent of ours in extreme al
titude Europe is crowned by Mount
Blanc, only 1871 feet, and Africa by
Kilimanjaro, with $4,000 feet.
lie MOUNTAINS III thG tuHlSlh pan Va
our country are not high, the highest sum
nit of the Appalachians being Mount
| Mitchell, in the Black Range of North
Carolina, Gill feet above the sea.
In the northern Appalachians, the we'll
known SUBMITS are Marcy, Mount Wash
ington, the highest of the White Noun
tains of New Hampshire, 1924 feet,
whose summit is reached by rail or stage,
and Mount Katahdin, in Maine, round
| nil tho The AnDDIlcllHn
Mountains present few rugged features.
They are characterized by broad, smooth,
foresteu slopes and rounded forms. Ex-
cepting the higher group of the White
Mountains, none of them reach the tim
Der line.
The Western mountains-the Cordil-
| lera, or Rocky Mountains, as they are
variously called-are another and differ
ent story. Here is a broad region, a thOus-
and miles wide, and stretching from north
to south across the country, which in
cudeS hundreds of ranges, and presents
an infinite variety of scenery, with huge
masses of granite and uptilted stratified
rocks, ana hundreds Of volcanic cones. In
some of these ranges the SUBMITS are
broad and nthssite, in others sharply shat
| tered into biunaCles and spires; in the
south, worn ply Winter into grotesque and
rugged fOrniS; in the north, planned by
gaciers, with cirques and gorges cut by
| the ice: while IN northern Montana and
Idaho, and in Washington and Oregon are
glaciers still at work In this Cordil-
| leran region are hundreds Of peaks ex-
ceeding 14,OG0 feet in hight, most of them
undistinguisbAd by name, and thousands
which rise oyer 10000 feet.
THE COLORADO PEAKS.
In Colorado the, mountains stand upon
platform or base which is from 5000 to
10000 feet above. the sea. The city Of
Denver is mile. high, as high as the
summit of Mount Katahdin, and Colorado
Springs is within a hundred feet of the
hight of Mount Washington, while the
great. tablelahd known as South Park,
from which rise many peaks of 1400O
feet, is half as high again as Mount Nit
chel, the highest mountain in the East.
In this State are the highest peaks in
the country, excepting those of Alaska,
and the southern part Of the Sierra
Nevada of California. OF the well-known
ones are Longs Peak, standing in the
Front Range, which frOwns down upon
the plains from an altitude Of 14,2I1 feet,
and farther south Greys and Torreys
Peaks, half mile apart and connected
by ridge, dropping to Il comparatively
low gap. These mountains, named for
the well-known botanists, are among the
highest SUBMITS in the State, being, re-
spectiyely, 14,341 and 1896 feet, and
rise 5000 feet above the timber line An
excellent hOrse-trail leads right over the
summit of Greys Peak, making the as
cent of this mountain purely Il question
of horsehesh. In the early days, 80
years ago. all the freight to the mining
camps to the westward was packed Oh
burros over this trail.
Rising abruptly from the plains near
Colorado Springs, IS mountain mass
whose outermost summit is known as
Cheyenne Mountain. Other and higher
submits rise TO the westward, and the
mass eliminates in the great dome or
Pixies Peak, u miles from Colorado
Springs, and 5000 feet above it. Up at
the head of South Park, rising from a
base 10000 feet above the sea to hight
of 14,291 feet, is Mount Lincoln, named
by early miners for our greatest Pres-
dent. 1t is very accessible, Il railroad
running by its base, while, as mines have
been opened at various points upon it,
even within 100 feet of its summit. roads
and trails lead to the top. | once spent
a night at n mine just below the summit.
11,20G feet above the sea. Early in the
morning before sunrise, | went IN to the
top, and found myself upon an island, in
Il sea of cloud. Overhead the sky was
perfectly clear. Beneath me, as / looked
over cliff, was vacancy. Around me
was stretched Il white sea, level and I'M
broken except for a score or two of sharp
black islands, the SUBMITS of other noun
tains, which, like my own, projected above
the sea of cloud, whose level was about
II 600 feet above the sea. This tran
quill sea was Shortlived, however, for, as
the sun rose above it, its surface com
menccd to heave, then to break and melt
away. Soon | could see, through vistas
opened in the cloud, the green of noun
tain sides, the yellow plains of South
Park. These views grew broader, gaps
in the cloud widened and joined with
others, until masses of cloud were
separated from rhe rest, and soon the
whole melted away, the last fragments
whirling up the gofges, catching on pro-
jecting spurs, and finally, before the sun
was half an hour high, the whole land
scape was in n blaze of sunlight.
West of the Arkansas Valley stands
the Sawatch Range, 100 miles long, north
and south, and presenting n fine success
sion of peaks over $4,000 feet high. The
northernmost of these is the wel-known
Mountain of the Holy Cross. on whose
eastern face nature has cut, in two trans
verse crevicesH filled with snow, the sym
Dol of the Christian religion, 800 feet
high, and with IL cross arm of 800 feet
The approach to the mountain-at least
the most apparent approach-is up the
valley of the Roche MOutOnnee Creek
from Eagle River, and unless a trial has
been made in recent years, this is like
the way of the transgressor. 1t is strewn
with powders and fallen timber in such
profusion as to be impossible for horses
and well-nigh for men on foot. The only