654 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



its lower edge and remarkably clean the fresh snows melt away from its 

 throughout. No debris-shedding cliffs surface, grayish patches of old crystal- 

 rise anywhere along its borders, and line ice develop in places, more especially 

 this fact, no doubt, largely explains its toward the glacier's lower margin, 

 freedom from morainal accumulations. Day by day these patches expand until, 



The absence of cliffs also implies a lack by the end of August, most of the lower 

 of protecting shade. Practi- 

 cally the entire expanse of 

 the glacier lies exposed to 

 the full glare of the sun. 

 As a consequence its losses 

 by melting are very heavy, 

 and a single hot summer 

 may visibly diminish the 

 glacier's bidk. Nevertheless 

 it seems to hold its own as 

 well as any other glacier on 

 Mount Rainier, and this 

 ability to recuperate finds its 

 explanation in the exceed- 

 ing abundance of fresh 

 snows that replenish it every 

 winter. 



The Paradise Glacier, 

 however, is not the product 

 wholly' of direct precipita- 

 tion from the clouds. Much 

 of its mass is supplied by 

 the wind, and accumulates 

 in the lee of the high ridge 

 to the west, over which the 

 route to Camp Muir and 

 Gibraltar Rock is laid . Th e 

 westerly gales keep this ridge 

 almost bare of snow, permit- 

 ting only a few drifts to lodge 

 in sheltered depressions. But 

 east of the ridge there are 

 great eddies in which the 

 snow forms long, smooth 

 slopes that descend several 

 hundred feet to the main 

 body of the glacier. These 

 slopes are particularly invit- 

 ing to tourists for the de- 

 lightful "glissades" which 

 they afford. Sitting down 

 on the hard snow at the 

 head of such a slope, one 

 may indulge in an exhilarating glide of ice field has been stripped of its brilliant 

 amazing swiftness, landing at last safely mantle. Its countenance, once bright 

 on the level snows beneath. and serene, now assumes a grim ex- 



In the early part of summer the pression and becomes crisscrossed by a 

 Paradise Glacier has the appearance thousand seams, like the visage of an 

 of a vast, unbroken snow field, blazing, aged man. 

 immaculate, in the sun. But later, as Over this roughened surface trickle 



I'holo by Maithes. 



He.\d of Cowlitz Glacier. 



(.ibk.\ltar rock is seen endwise, at the apex of the two rock 



"cleavers." 



