File:American forestry (1910-1923) (18120804486).jpg

Title: American forestry
Identifier: americanforestry231917amer (find matches)
Year: 1910-1923 (1910s)
Authors: American Forestry Association
Subjects: Forests and forestry
Publisher: Washington, D. C. : American Forestry Association
Contributing Library: The LuEsther T Mertz Library, the New York Botanical Garden
Digitizing Sponsor: The LuEsther T Mertz Library, the New York Botanical Garden

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Text Appearing Before Image:
RUGGED BEARS BREAST PEAK BY GUY E. MITCHELL IN our school geographies the Cascade Mountains re- ceive but passing notice, as a small part of the Pacific Coast mountain system of the United States. As a matter of fact, the Cascade Range, extending from northern California northward through Oregon and Washington, form a tremendous and majestic forest-clad barrier of thousands of square miles, cutting off the Pacific Ocean from the arid plains and val- leys of the in- terior, and sur- mount e d at frequent inter- vals by some o f the most stupendous ex- tinct volcanoes of the conti n e n t. The peaks and ridges rise high above the great Cascade plateau, which in ages past has been up- lifted to an al- titude above the sea of near- ly 5,000 feet. The whole land i s vol- canic, the out- flow from a multitude o f vents, which in a remote per- iod of the earth's history poured o u t countless thou- sands of bil- lions of tons of lava and sco- ria. Out o f these m o u n- tains, many of them snow-clad through the greater part or even the entire year, come the rivers which, winding through the high valleys and augmented by many brooks and larger tributaries, constitute the great, strong running streams which feed the fertile irrigated lands to the east, or tum- ble down the more preci))itate slopes to the west and produce a water power sufllcient to turn the wheels of
Text Appearing After Image:
BEAR'S BRE.AST PE.\K IN THE CASCADE MOUNTAINS This is one of tlie most bcautifcl of the niountniiis of the Pacific Co.ist raiiijc. the view summit of which well repays the strenuous effort of hiiti who climbs to the top. a thousand industries—one of the great and only slightly developed resources of America. The photograph shows a typical mass of volcanic origin, one of the giant mountain peaks of the Cascade range, unheard of by more than one in ten thousand people outside of its immediate vicinity, a type of hun- dreds of other similar high peaks, hut one of exceptional beauty and ruggedness. It is not, h o w- ever, as might b e supposed, an extinct vol- cano ; it is a mountain left by erosion, not built up by eruptions. This peak, known as Bear's Breast Peak, is at thf head of the middle fork of the Snoqual- mie River. Its altitude is 9,200 feet above sea level and its highest 2,000 feet rises aliove timber line, bare and rugged. A severe test of in o u n- taineering i s the climbing of P>ear's Breast Peak. What ap))ear in the photograph to be but rough places are in fact impassa- ble cliffs and rents in the rock, u)j or across which no man can pass; yet once attained the view from the summit of the peak is incomparably fine, the grand chaos of the great Cascade range and ))l;iteau stretching away as far as the eye can see—100 miles or more in the intensely clear western atmosphere. The lower slopes of the mountains are richly clothed with heavy forests of majestic firs from loO to 2.50 feel in height 788

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