Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

Maps.

347

Sketch-map of Kabba Province, Northern Nigeria
Sketch-map to show Mr. Terry's route through North-West Australia

291

305

-A Naturalist in East Africa. - Wonderland of the Old South-
West. - Relation of Nature to Man in Aboriginal America. - The
Adventure Book. - A Study of the Oceans. - Prehistoric Man
and the Cambridge Gravels. - Industry and Commerce. Tea.
The Clove of Commerce. - The Cambridge Ancient History. -
The Empire Cruise.

[blocks in formation]

The Geographical Journal

Vol. LXVIII No. I

July 1926

THE CONQUEST OF MOUNT LOGAN

H. F. Lambart, B.Sc., D.L.S., Vice-President Alpine Club

of Canada

Read at the Meeting of the Society, 12 April 1926, by Dr. T. G. Longstaff. Folding Map follows p. 96.

THE HE Mount Logan Region.-Mount Logan (19,850 feet), the highest mountain in the Dominion of Canada and ranking second only to Mount McKinley (20,460 feet)- the highest point on the North American Continent-is in the extreme south-western corner of the Yukon Territory, some 21 miles to the east of the Alaskan Boundary and only 60 miles from the shores of the Pacific Ocean.

Strange to say, though it may be clearly seen from a point 125 miles out to sea, the existence of this great mountain remained unknown until the year 1891, when I. C. Russell, of the U.S. Geological Survey, saw it from a point of vantage on the foothills of the St. Elias Alps to the south, and reported the discovery in the following interesting way:

"The clouds parted towards the north-east, revealing several giant peaks not before seen, some of which seemed to rival St. Elias itself. One stranger, rising in three white domes far above the clouds, was especially magnificent. As this was probably the first time its summit was ever seen, we took the liberty of giving it a name. It will appear on our maps as Mount Logan, in honour of Sir William E. Logan, founder and long director of the Geological Survey of Canada" (see vol. 3 of the National Geographic Magazine, 1891).

Apart from the South Polar ice-cap and the interior of Greenland, this region of which Mount Logan is the predominating feature presents what is probably the most intensely glaciated district of the globe, and in its awful silence, its absence of any forms of life, vegetation, or running water, one sees a picture of the utter desolation which once existed during the great Glacial periods of the Earth's history.

This region, rather difficult to define with accuracy, comprises some 12,000 square miles of territory, extending back from the coast over 100 miles and reaching from the Bering glacier on the west to Disenchantment Bay on the east, a distance of 125 miles.

Mount Logan. -The main mountain system of this region has

B

hitherto been referred to as the St. Elias Alps, since the great peak of that name was long considered to be the monarch of all the vast and nameless heights which constitute the range. Mount Logan, now known to be the crowning peak of them all, lies 26 miles farther in from the coast than St. Elias, and is so obscured by the ranges nearer the coast as to be hardly recognizable from the sea. It rises 14,000 feet above its surrounding glaciers in a colossal mass of rock which appears, from specimens taken at an elevation of 18,500 feet, to be chiefly biotite-diorite gneiss. The north and south walls present continuous precipitous cliffs of sheer rock so steep that no snow can lodge upon them, while the east and west.extremities of the mass are marked by two subsidiary peaks, one on either side, McArthur Peak (14,000 feet) on the east and King Peak (17,130 feet) on the west.

It was not, however, until the publication of the wonderful photographs taken by Signor Sella, of the Duke of the Abruzzi's famous expedition which conquered Mount St. Elias, that any true conception was obtained of the immense bulk of the Logan massif. If this mountain were cut through at the 16,000-foot level it would be found to be 11 miles in length east and west, and would consist of a plateau 30 square miles in area. Above the 16,000-foot level is built up an amazingly complicated system of glaciers, snowfields, ridges, and peaks, rising all the way from 18,000 feet at the extreme western end to the highest, 19,850 feet, on the eastern. The great mass of Mount Logan towers 10,000 to 14,000 feet above the glaciers at its base, which lie about the 6000-foot level. From the innumerable indentations at its base, which stretches for 24 miles east and west, spring glaciers which are tributaries of the two great glaciers of the region-the Logan glacier on the north side, and the Seward and Columbus on the south. The Logan, having a width of 21 to 4 miles, has a main trunk 50 miles long flowing westerly, which forms the main source of the Chitina river. On the south, issuing from vast névés, the Seward launches its mighty bulk and forms the principal tributary of the Malaspina glacier.

The History of the Expedition. As soon as it was known that far to the north a knightly and defiant peak-cut off from civilization by rivers of ice and entrenched among a thousand barriers of snow-lay waiting attack, the mountaineers of this continent began to turn their eyes to Mount Logan and to dream of its conquest. It was not, however, until the year 1922 that Professor A. P. Coleman, of the University of Toronto, the veteran geologist and mountain climber, presented to the Alpine Club of Canada the suggestion that a serious attempt should be made to conquer the mountain. In the autumn of 1923 the Club called a special meeting in Vancouver to consider seriously Professor Coleman's proposal. This meeting made the momentous decision that an expedition should be undertaken, appointed an Executive Committee, and tentatively named the personnel of the climbing party. The sister

« PreviousContinue »