Eagle Heights is an elevated area located south of Koksilah Ridge on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. It is centered at 48°40′N, 123°46′W. Its summit lies about 836 meters (2,743 feet) above sea level. Populated areas where it is visible include North Saanich, Sidney, and Shawnigan Lake.
Its bedrock lithology is dominated by Upper Triassic period basalt at and around the summit. This formation is bordered on the west by Jurassic period volcanics which are of more variable composition. To the north, east and south is a complex of Pennsylvanian age argillite, chert, diabase and greywacke. A band of limestone lies within this complex on the southeast side between 550 and 610 meters (1,804 - 2,001 feet).
Most soils on Eagle Heights are shallow, stony gravelly sandy loams with podzol profile development. The forests they support belong to the Coastal Western Hemlock zone with Douglas-fir, western hemlock and western red cedar as the most common trees. Lower elevations near Koksilah River Provincial Park are home to arbutus, Garry oak and numerous rare plant species.
Loggers have harvested Eagle Heights over the years, leaving clear-cut areas which are most eye-catching when a snow cover is present. A particularly large clear area was present around the summit in the 1970s. This has since regenerated to native coniferous forest. In recent years the Heights were logged less heavily than neighboring hills until new logging activity began on part of the lower eastern slope in 2011.
Famous quotes containing the words eagle and/or heights:
“There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not: the way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid.”
—Bible: Hebrew Proverbs, 30:18-19.
From the oracle of Agur, son of Jakeh.
“Give me the keys. I feel for the common chord again,
Sliding by semi-tones till I sink to a minor,—yes,
And I blunt it into a ninth, and I stand on alien ground,
Surveying a while the heights I rolled from into the deep;
Which, hark, I have dared and done, for my resting-place is found,
The C Major of this life: so, now I will try to sleep.”
—Robert Browning (1812–1889)