The Mountaineer DS 
MAPPING MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK. 
F. EK. Marrues. 
|The mapping is being conducted by F. E. Matthes, who has made 
a specialty of high-mountain surveying in various parts of the Wes¢t 
for the last twelve years. He finds Mount Rainier by all odds the 
most interesting and also the most difficult problem he has attempted. 
A committee appointed by the Mountaineers is now in consultation 
with Mr. Matthes as to the naming of the various peaks, glaciers, 
parks and other points of interest on the mouatain. This committee 
will spend three years threshing out the name question, seeking out 
the source of the original names and preparing a complete report as 
to each name. 
Recommendations will then be made to the national geographical 
board. The committee has been chosen from among members of the 
Mountaineers and outsiders whose knowledge of the mountain and 
position enables them to act as competent judges. 
The members of the committee are: Prof. E. S. Meany, University 
of Washington; J. B. Flett, Asahel Curtis, E. S. Ingraham and L. A. 
Nelson. Others assisting are John H. Williams, P. B. Van Trump 
and Eugene Ricksecker. | 
The party of surveyors which the United States geological 
survey sent out last summer to map the Mount Rainier Na- 
tional Park, has just concluded its labors for the season, and 
has returned from the mountain. Continued fog and rain ren- 
dered further stay unprofitable. The map is to be something 
more than a superficial reconnaissance. It is intended to be- 
come the basis for all future engineering projects in the park, 
and is consequently elaborate and refined in character. It will 
rank with the new detail maps which the geological survey 
has recently published of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, 
the Yosemite Valley, Crater Lake and several other national 
parks. 
Such a map requires a very large number of locations and 
elevations. Many thousands of points were determined this 
season, although only a small portion of the park on the south 
side of the mountain was covered. 
The work was executed almost wholly by means of the 
“plane table” method. That is to say, the map was made on 
the ground, being carried on a drafting board mounted on a 
