58 The Mountaineer 
nels as the rocks from the top are disintegrating and roll down 
rather carelessly at times. 
The south side is a long, gradual slope and the kindergarten 
side for a climb. 
From the west or northwest no known one has climbed 
as yet. 
Attractions. 
A trip to St. Helens furnishes a pleasing outing because of 
the good roads leading to it and because the mountain itself is 
easily accessible from permanent camp. Spirit Lake, a body 
of crystal water covering 1,800 acres, has been sounded to 
a depth of 1,300 feet and no bottom found. There is any 
amount of trout in the lake from one to three feet in length. 
Qne in a boat can see them by the hundreds, but they are con- 
trarv and bite only when the spirit moves them. It is a 
trolling proposition except when the wind rufiles the water 
just right, then the expert tly fisher makes a killing. 
There is the best of drinking water and plenty of fuel. 
Around the base of the mountain is a dim trail. The 
forest rangers are cutting a trail to Mount Adams which is 
distant thirty-three miles air line, but will be fifty miles 
by trail. 
Lava Caves. 
Lying some six miles from the mountain base on the south- 
east corner are the lava caves in the voleanie rock. Lava, being 
a bad conductor of heat, hardened on the outside while the 
inside being still molten, flowed on and out thus forming 
underground channels. These have been explored for one and 
a half miles without reaching the upper end. It winds down- 
ward in easy curves, river like and in a line direct from the 
mountain, thus showing whence it came. The lower end is 
filled with lava. At places along its course are openings where 
the reck roof has fallen in. A current of air circulates down 
this flume. The roof is nearly fifteen feet below the surface. 
The bed of this volcanic stream is twenty feet wide, nearly 
level, and littered with the debris of the last flow. The banks 
of the channel are well defined, about six feet high, straight 
up with parallel lines showing the different flows. The slope 
is about a three per cent grade, with a roof twenty feet high, 
semi-circular in shape with a brown glazed appearance like 
