The Mountaineer 51 
not readily accessible except to experienced climbers. The 
island consists really of two rock masses divided by a deep 
abyss. <A lobe from the Wilson Glacier formerly plunged into 
this gulf, and connected with the Tahoma Glacier, thus splitting 
the island into two lesser islands. A small remnant of this 
lobe still exists, but it no longer reaches to the bottom of the 
gulch. 
The south half of the island, upon examination proves to 
have been entirely overridden by the Wilson Glacier; the 
higher north half, on the other hand, judging from the greatly 
weathered appearance of the frail pinnacles that surround it, 
has never been submerged. 
The Wilson Glacier in passing around the island narrows 
down to a width of only six hundred feet, that is, a width one- 
fourth of the average width which it maintains above the 
island. At the same time its slope is greatly accelerated. In 
half a mile it descends 1,400 feet. Yet the glacier does not 
appear to break and cascade as it does in so many places 
farther up. 
At the foot of Glacier Island the Wilson Glacier broadens 
again and unites with the great east lobe of the Tahoma Glacier, 
the two continuing thence for a distance of three-quarters of 
a mile as a single mass. This mass one might at first glance 
not take for a glacier; so entirely concealed is it under a mantle 
of morainic material. But a live glacier it truly is, as one may 
readily discover by venturing out upon its treacherous, hum- 
mocky surface. The coarse sand and cobbles are then seen to 
constitute but a thin veneer, through which the clear, blue ice 
shines in many places. So large are the quantities of powdered 
rock that bestrew this extensive tract, that the wind occasional- 
ly picks them up and creates veritable dust storms with them. 
The writer while crossing the glacier on one occasion met with 
such a dust storm, and a most disagreeable experience it proved 
to be. 
Tahoma Glacier. This ice stream is by far the largest on 
the southwest side of Mount Rainier. Originating on the very 
summit of the mountain, it descends through the great, mile- 
wide breach that separates Peak Success from the Liberty Cap 
massif. For the most part it cascades down in the form of an 
unbroken stream, but a portion of its mass falls in avalanches 
down the great precipice that extends northward and forms 
