10 The Mountaineer 
the new lava was thickest and where radiation would be slow- 
est. In the process of cooling there would come a time when 
the lava occupying an old ravine would cool and stick to the 
walls, as well as form an arch of cooled and hardened rock 
extending from one wall of the ravine to the other. The cen- 
tral mass of lava, vet plastic enough to flow, would continue 
to move on, leaving in its wake a long, winding, irregular tube 
or cylindrical cavern now known as a lava cave. It is easily 
seen that caves produced in this way would vary greatly in 
position, shape, end size, depending upon the varying peeu- 
liarities of the former valleys. Some of the caves are so near 
the surface that freezing temperatures prevail in them during 
the winter and ice formed at such times may not all be melted 
during the following summer. The water in the winter some- 
times seeps through the roof and icicles form like those on the 
eaves of a house. The icicles may grow to giant proportions 
and extend to the floor, assuming shapes hke the larger stalae- 
tites and stalagmites in limestone eaves. 
The glaciers on Adams look like pigmies when compared 
with those on Rainier, or even Baker. The great snow-fields 
or feeding grounds at the top are not large, hence the glaciers 
have no great length. Only the largest reach the foot of the 
mountain, while the others are perched upon the flanks of the 
cone. That the glaciers were once of much greater length is 
readily shown by the old terminal and recessional moraines that 
now le far beyond the present melting points. 
Mt. St. Helens 
St. Helens is the westernmost and the lowest of the five 
ereat voleanoes of Washington. It is easily visible from many 
view points amone the lowlands that extend from the southern 
tip of Puget Sound to the Columbia River. It has a cone of 
rare symmetry and beauty, and is always dazzling snow-white, 
except for a few weeks at the close of summer. There are no 
very high mountains in its vicinity and the snow-locks of St. 
Helens always afford a striking contrast to the dark green 
mountain ridges which fit like a picture frame around it. 
The two common routes of ascent of the mountain are up 
the southern and northern slopes. The southern slope is not 
quite so steep as the northern one but the route is a little 
