Note 97 — Chapter XXXIII

“Scenes from the Snow Fields, or the Upper Ice World of Mont Blanc,” by Edmund T. Coleman, was published, at the cost of three guineas each copy, by Messrs. Longman, in 1859. Mr. Coleman, who is still a member of the English Alpine Club, has since extended his travels to British Columbia and California. In 1868, in company with Messrs. Ogilvy, Stratton, and Tennent, he finally succeeded in making the first ascent of Mount Baker, and planting the American flag on its highest peak, which he named “Grant’s Peak,” in honour of the President of the United States. Mount Baker is 10,613 feet above the level of the sea, and is the most northerly of the great cones of the Cascade range, being only fourteen miles from the boundary line dividing America from English possessions. Like another “snowy Olympus,” it towers above the rest, as the sentinel of a solitary land. The justly celebrated and successful American serial, “Harper’s New Monthly Magazine,” of November, 1869, page 793, contains a most interesting article, entitled “Mountaineering on the Pacific,” by Mr. Coleman, with numerous engravings from Mr. Coleman’s drawings, descriptive of his successful ascent. Illustrations and a paragraph referring to the ascent also appeared 29th June, 1872, in a number of the Illustrated London News.