26 The Mountaineer 



parts of the country, an appeal human as well as scenic. 

 The people are doing things in a more virile, unfet- 

 tered, optimistic way, not having found their limita- 

 tions and not admitting that they have any; and Na- 

 ture, also, has worked along the Pacific Coast, in the 

 canyons, mountains, glaciers, waterfalls and trees, with 

 a broad, titanic sweep of the brush not to be found 

 elsewhere. Her work, perhaps, sometimes lacks the 

 perfection of detail to be found in the East, and there 

 are people who prefer the Hudson to the Columbia. 

 Personally, I do not. 



In scenery, from Alaska to Southern California, and 

 in climate (making a few mental reservations), I be- 

 lieve the Pacific Coast leads the world; and the situa- 

 tion of Washington and Oregon, in the very center of 

 things, is especially fortunate. (I hear some enthusi- 

 astic Seattleite say, *'Why drag in Oregon?") You 

 have within your own borders the great volcanoes, the 

 Olympics, Crater Lake and numberless other wonders ; 

 while Alaska, the Canadian Rockies and Selkirks, the 

 Sierras, and all the great national parks of the West, 

 are readily accessible. Because of all these attractions, 

 although an Eastener who thoroughly appreciates and 

 enjoys the advantages and charms of the East, I go 

 West as often as I can, because certainly scenery, cli- 

 mate and electric human contact go to make up no 

 mean part of life. 



Rainier is the most majestic great dome mountain, 

 not excepting Mount Blanc, that I have ever seen. 

 Where else can you find a mountain with fifteen or six- 

 teen tremendous living glaciers on its sides? Four 

 years ago, from Paradise Park, repose seemed to be 

 its keynote; but I found this year that it is a 

 dozen mountains in one, and that even the Matterhorn 

 has nothing more terrific than the avalanching Willis 

 Wall. 



One of the grandest pictures in my ''nature gallery" 



