Coast Mountains

“ A tumbled sea of mountains looks down from above on the long swell of the southern ocean, breaking in clouds of snowy white foam on craggy cliffs rising abruptly from the shore, while glaciers and snowy peaks, slopes covered with noble forest trees, gloomy valleys and glittering waterfalls, all combine to present an ever varying succession of sublime pictures. ”

“ Like the day before, only hourly more and more so, the trail still wound up, and along, and over the ridges and mountains—now through deep forests of primeval pines, that would be monsters anywhere else, where our horses sank to their fetlocks in mosses of emerald green, and now along some rocky bluff, naked and barren, whence we could gaze for miles on miles across ravine and ridge, wooded mountain and arid plain, to the purple Coast Range beyond. ”

“ The ocean too smooth for sea-sickness, we strolled about the deck by twos and fours, or lolled for hours on the settees, inhaling life and vigor at every breath, until we almost seemed to be navigating fabled seas or voyaging into paradise. The Coast itself, never out of sight, rose generally in abrupt hills or mountains, and these were now green and gold to their summits. In places, whole hillsides seemed alive with wild-flowers of every hue, while here and there flocks and herds dotted the landscape far and near. Now and then an adobe house gleamed out of some sheltered nook ”

“ Down towards the coast the land is filled with gently-sloping hills, and intersected by rivers, whose rapid currents remind one of the neighbourhood of the mountains. At a distance from the coast the land rises, the tops of the mountains become barer and sharper, the valleys have a greater depth, and the roaring of the streams over fragments of rock is heard more distinctly. The mountains, as they rise from the Lowlands to the Highlands, afford in a still higher degree than the more southern border mountains, the most enchanting prospects over the coasts and sea. ”

“ Then the Appalachians were formed, lifting their heads much higher than at present, after which they were cut down almost to sea level, and then once more upraised. The Coast Range Mountains of our Pacific Coast have come into existence since the middle of the present (Cenozoic) geologic era. Every mountain, like every organism, has a life history, in some cases simple, and other cases complex. All pass through stages of birth, youth, maturity, old age, and death. ”

“ On the Columbia this belt, even on the low grounds, is wide, and, as there is a range of highlands of considerable elevation extending from the mouth of this river to and beyond its passage through the Cascade Mountains, with only occasional depressions, there is a great body of timber within reach of tide-water.
The base of the Coast Mountains on the west comes within two to six miles of the sea, and frequent spurs reach quite to the beach, forming high promontories. From the coast to the eastern base of the Coast Mountains is a distance of from twenty to thirty miles. ”

“ A few stunted oaks and cedars fringed the ravines here and there, but as a forest they were nothing to speak of. The Coast Mountains lifted themselves everywhere, smooth to the summit as if shaven, with no glory of trees to shelter or crown them; and in [Pg 324] summer, when their verdure dries up and blows away, they must seem very bald and desolate.
At Santa Barbara, some three hundred miles down the Coast, we touched for an hour or two, and put ashore several passengers, and some thirty tons of freight. ”

“ The mountains on the west coast are very steep, many of them inaccessible, and most of them dangerous to climb, either from the smooth hard snow with which they are encrusted even in summer, or from the looseness of the disintegrated stones which cover the parts denuded by the sun, and give way under the slightest pressure of the foot. ”

“ Coast plains, inland valleys, elevated plateaus, deep, hot gorges, and glimpses of snow-clad mountains are all included within the closest possible bounds. In a journey of from two to three days the traveller from west to east passes from the equable, balmy climate of the Mediterranean coast to the comparatively cold highlands of the central plateau and then down into the moist, tropical climate of the hot Jordan and Dead Sea valley. ”

“ The Coast Range sprang up, but the rivers worked faster than the mountains grew, so that their courses were not altered, and the Coast Range instead of being one continuous range of mountains, even though it is a mountain chain, became bunches of land islets, separated from one another by streams. ”

“ When the air in these valleys becomes heated by the sun, it rushes up the slopes of the Sierra Nevada as up a mighty chimney. To fill the vacuum thus created, the sea air is drawn in through every break in the coast ranges as by a blower. In the upper part of the California coast it sucks in with fury, as through the Golden Gate, piling up and demolishing high hills of sand every year, and cutting grooves on the granite fronts of mountains. ”

“ The forest on these islands consists of a few scattered groves. The grass, shrubs and mosses bathed in a perpetual fog are so brilliantly green as to dazzle the eye.
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The dug-out canoe disappears here and boats of sea lion and walrus skins stretched over frames of drift wood lightly skim the blue waters of the cold sea.
As we steam along through sunshine and fog, past glaciers, mountains and fiords, “so wide the loneliness, so lucid the air,” we are reminded that the Ancient Mariner sailed the blue Pacific. Now the sun drops into the sea, lighting it up with a luminous glow. ”

“ Hills rose above hills, having, in part, a cleared appearance; but, in general, vegetation was most abundant. Lofty mountains formed the distant prospect; above the whole of which, the “Golden Mountain” reared its peaked summit, terminating the rich and varied landscape in an extremely beautiful manner.
From the few houses and canoes seen about this part of the coast, there seems to be a paucity of inhabitants, and no cultivation of the land was visible. The natives, however, may live in the fertile valleys, a short distance from the sea-coast, and concealed from our view. ”

“ The Coast range, reaching into the far northland, is cut and intersected by many inlets from the sea. These inlets are often narrow and enclosed by precipitous sides of rock, over which cascades fall hundreds of feet to tide-water below. The steeps are clad with forests of tropical luxuriance, through which it is only with great difficulty a passage can be forced, and giant trees of fir, cedar and balsam grow nearly to the summits of the mountains. ”

“ The eastern coast is a rugged line of mountains, bare of all vegetation, — a continuation of the Hauran range, coming from the north, and extending south beyond the scope of vision, throwing out three marked and seemingly equidistant promontories from its south-eastern extremity. ”

“ The particular point where our friends were suffered to land was rough, barren and rocky, and behind them, with many peaks reaching the line of perpetual snow, rose the noble Coast Range, between which and them stretched a smaller range of mountains. ”

“ Who would have thought that an island of no greater extent than this, situated between the latitude of 54° and 55°, should, in the very height of summer, be in a manner wholly covered, many fathoms deep, with frozen snow, but more especially the S.W. coast? The very sides and craggy summits of the lofty mountains were cased with snow and ice; but the quantity which lay in the valleys is incredible; and at the bottom of the bays the coast was terminated by a wall of ice of considerable height. ”

“ The land along the coast is unusually high, the mountains on the sea-board rising about 3000 feet above the water, for the greater part at an angle of 60 to 70 degrees. In their height, there is hardly any perceptible difference; the summits form long tracts of table-land, very uneven, however, and broken up in all directions by chasms, and the dried-up beds of cataracts and rapid rivers. For 400 leagues along the coast, all is one dreary waste. ”

“ A land of stupendous mountains, roaring cataracts, silvery cascades, fantastic volcanic formations, magnificent landscapes, noble forests, and picturesque lakes,” meeting the tourist at every turn, in a thirty hours’ journey. This West Coast road must be seen to be appreciated and enjoyed. The stupendous grandeur of the scenery in many places is beyond description, and is such as can only be realised by actual vision and experience. ”

“ NORTHERN SEASIDE RESORTS.
OOKED at from the Western ocean, the shore of our continent presents a generally mountainous outline, the Coast Range, as it is called, being thrown up at no great distance from the sea, while in many places it laves its feet in the surf. The altitude of these mountains is not great,—about two thousand feet, with here and there a peak of sufficient elevation to merit and receive a particular appellation. ”

“ Roe, of the hills in sight during the progress of the survey of the Coasts of Australia, accord in a very striking manner with the geological character of the shore. Those from the east coast, where the rocks are primitive, representing strongly marked and irregular outlines of lofty mountains, and frequently, in the nearer ground, masses of strata highly inclined. The outlines on the contrary, on the north, north-west, and western shores, are most commonly uniform, rectilinear, the summits flat, and diversified only by occasional detached and conical peaks, none of which are very lofty. ”

“ The facts, so far as known, appear to show that we have here what geologists term a fault, the north or landward side of which has been raised at least 5,000 feet in very modern times, but, so far as we can judge, without disturbing the seaward border of the break. The coast between Mount Fairweather and Mount St. Elias is by far the boldest, and from a scenic point of view the most impressive, portion of the entire shore-line of North America. The mountains are young and among the highest on the continent. ”

“ These mountains, barren and rugged in the extreme, rise to an altitude of nearly 5,000 feet above sea level, while the country surrounding them has an elevation of about 2,000 feet above the sea level, and slopes away towards the coast on every side, which at no point is nearer than 1,000 miles. ”

“ A range of hills runs along the eastern coast, from north to south, which, in different quarters, vary in their distance from the sea; at one place approaching it pretty nearly, at another, receding from it to a distance of forty miles. It is a singular fact, that there is no pass or break in these mountains, by which any of the rivers of the interior can escape in an easterly direction. Their spine is unbroken. ”

“ The coast appears straight and uniform, having no inlets or bays; the ground, from the shore, rises in hills of a moderate elevation, behind which are ranges of mountains, whose summits were lost in the clouds. The whole scene was entirely covered with snow, except the sides of some of the cliffs, which rose too abruptly from the sea for the snow to lie upon them.
The wind continued blowing very strong from the north-east, with thick hazy weather and sleet, from the 24th till the 28th. During the whole time, the thermometer was never higher than 301⁄2°. ”

“ The length of coast along which we sailed, reduced to a straight line, is no less than twenty-seven degrees of latitude, amounting to near 2000 miles, so that its square surface must be much more than equal to all Europe. To the southward of 33 or 34, the land in general is low and level; farther northward it is hilly, but in no part can be called mountainous; and the hills and mountains, taken together, make but a small part of the surface, in comparison with the vallies and plains. ”

“ When we got upon the top, which is bare and rocky, we had a fair view of the coast, with its many windings and its islands, from the Cape Ann, near Boston, to the Cape Elizabeth, near Casco, the Piscataqua and Agamenticus rivers; and away in the northwest we could see the peaks of mountains looking like summer clouds or banks of gray fog. These mountains lie many leagues off in the wilderness, and are said to be exceeding lofty. ”

“ The residents of the valleys would like to live upon the coast, were it not for the mountains which divide it from their fertile prairies. Yet it is by these mountains the climate is rendered what it is, —partially confining the fogs and winds to the coast, making this section cool and moist, and the interior warm and dry. ”

“ If light enough to ascend, their wealth of moisture is condensed as rain or snow along the mountain sides or summit, by the cold of the upper regions, as with your hand you squeeze a sponge; and, consequently, they topple over the Range dry and clear—to curse a vast region beyond with their sterility. If unable to ascend, they career along the western slope of the Mountains, and hover over the Coast Region generally, literally deluging Western Oregon and Washington, at certain seasons of the year, with rains and fogs. ”

“ The eastern declivity of the highlands has, to the inhabitants of the coast, the appearance of a mountain chain. The plateau, which diminishes considerably in height towards its southern extremity, passes into the Mountains of the Moon, which run not east and west, but parallel to the coast, or from N.N.E. to S.S.W., extending from 10° north to 5° south latitude. ”