Alpenglow Ski Mountaineering History Project Home

George Vancouver - A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and Round the World
The following passages are from The Voyage of George Vancouver, 1791-1795, vol. II, edited by W. Kaye Lamb of The Hakluyt Society, University Press, Cambridge, 1984.

p. 509: Sailing through the Strait of Juan de Fuca on April 30, 1792, near Dungeness Spit, Vancouver wrote: "About this time a very high conspicuous craggy mountain, bearing by compass N 50 E presented itself, towering above the clouds: as low down as they allowed it to be visible, it was covered with snow; and south of it, was a long ridge of very rugged snowy mountains, much less elevated, which seemed to stretch to a considerable distance."

p. 510: The lofty mountain was called Mount Baker in compliment of the third lieutenant who had discovered it that afternoon. Of their anchorage that evening, Vancouver wrote, "We had now advanced further up this inlet than Mr. Gray, or (to our knowledge) any other person from the civilized world."

The following passages are from A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and Round the World , by George Vancouver, published by N. Israel, Amsterdam, 1967.

p. 259: Entries dated May 19, 1792, refer to the Cascades as the snowy range, the eastern snowy range, and the range of snowy mountains. The author writes: "To describe the beauties of this region, will, on some future occasion, be a very grateful task to the pen of a skillful panegyrist. The serenity of the climate, the innumerable pleasing landscapes, and the abundant fertility that unassisted nature puts forth, require only to be enriched by the industry of man with villages, mansions, cottages, and other buildings, to render it the most lovely country that can be imagined; whilst the labour of the inhabitants would be amply rewarded, in the bounties which nature seems ready to bestow on cultivation."

p. 261: "The intermediate snowy mountains in various rugged and grotesque shapes, were seen just to rear their heads above the lofty pine trees, which appeared to compose one uninterrupted forest, between us and the snowy range, presented a most pleasing landscape." Also: "The ridge of mountains on which Mt Olympus is situated, whose rugged summits were seen no less fancifully towering over the forest than those on the eastern side, bounded to a considerable extent our western horizon."


Return to the Alpenglow Ski Mountaineering History Project home page

Copyright © 2002 Lowell Skoog. All Rights Reserved.
Last Updated: Sat Jun 21 08:48:50 PST 2003