t 
-~2 
The Mountaineer 
Y 
heaviest snowfall on that peak probably oceurs at levels be- 
tween 8,000 and 11,000 feet. For it is between those levels 
that the moist air strata hane and that the great storm clouds 
habitually form. This in itself explains why so many of the 
mountain’s glaciers and ice fields originate low down upon its 
flanks, mostly at levels below 11,000 feet. It also explains 
another fact, which must have struck more than one careful 
observer, namely, that so many glaciers have a leneth and 
volume wholly disproportionate to the limited capacity of their 
sources. And this characterization holds for cirque and sum- 
mit born glaciers alike. One need but view the slender Kautz 
Glacier to feel at once convinced that the small initial supply 
which it draws from the summit névés is unable by itself to 
sustain an ice stream of so great length. The tributary it re- 
ceives from Peak Success of course strengthens it considerably, 
but it is a notable fact that the glacier even before it receives 
this reinforcement appears larger than it was at the start. 
Obviously it receives accretions midway in its course, not only 
by precipitation but by drifting. The very size of its tributary 
suggests how considerable such accretions are likely to be. 
Similar observations may be made on the other summit 
born glaciers, only in most cases the conditions will be found 
more complex than in the Kautz. 
Especially striking is the downward enlargement of some 
of the cirque born glaciers, notably the Puyallup, Edmunds 
and Willis. Their beginnings are insignificant, yet each of 
these ice streams greatly augments in volume and in dimensions 
in its middle course. 
Thus it appears that, after all, the mountain’s flanks rather 
than its summit constitute the principal gathering ground of 
snow, and it is in that fact especially that we find warrant for 
placing all the large glaciers of Mount Rainier, whether cirque 
or summit born, on a parity with each other. 
