GLASS HOUSE MOUNTAINS

group of 11 principal peaks, the highest of which is Beerwah (1,824 feet ), in southeastern Queensland, Australia, 45 miles (70 km) north of Brisbane. Composed of volcanic trachyte, they rise abruptly from the coastal plain, and each of the peaks is a national park. Sighted in 1770 by the English navigator Captain James Cook, who supposedly named them because of their resemblance to glass furnaces in Yorkshire, Eng., they were explored in 1799 by Matthew Flinders. The town of Glass House Mountains, the region's tourist base, is on the Bruce Highway from Brisbane.