MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK 



535 



Mountain that was God." Why he should have used the 

 past tense is not clearly understood, for if ever a country 

 and people were dominated and inspired by a God-like 

 spectacle, the people of the vicinity of Mount Rainier are 

 held to-day in that dominion. That the Indians in past 

 days worshipped at the shrine of this glorious spectacle 

 in their simple obvious manner is no indication that none 

 of us holds in his breast 

 an equally reverential love 

 of this mountain which 

 once was and still is God of 

 our peaks. 



There is a theory that 

 seems to be more or less 

 founded upon observation 

 and facts to the effect that 

 man's mental development 

 is largely influenced by 

 what he sees, that the con- 

 stant intrusion upon one's 

 sense of the tawdry will in 

 time bring down the stand- 

 ard of intellect and charac- 

 ter, and that repeated con- 

 templation of an inspiring 

 view will in time lift the 

 character to the levels above 

 normal. Whether or not 

 this is true to any great ex- 

 tent, there is little doubt 

 that constant, intimate as- 

 sociation with the beauti- 

 ful undoubtedly influences 

 character for the better. 

 In the light of this theory, 

 it is difficult for some of us 

 who do not thoroughly 

 understand the nature of 

 the Japanese to appreciate 

 the fact that Fujiyama, that 

 most glorious of peaks, 

 has largely influenced and 

 moulded the character of 

 the people of Japan. Never- 

 theless, it is my opinion, and 



the belief of others, that a certain element of sublimity of 

 nature and sturdiness of character, which we know the 

 Japanese possess, may be traced to their intimate knowl- 

 edge of the beautiful scenery of their Island and their 

 relationship with the " holy mountain." This being the 

 case, the citizens in the vicinity of Mount Rainier 

 should deem themselves most blessed, for they may raise 

 their children at the very base of one of the most 

 beautiful, impressive and inspiring mountains that can 

 be seen on earth. 



The glaciers on Mount Rainier are quite different from 

 those to be found in Glacier National Park. In the 

 former case thev are actual active glaciers or rivers of 

 flowing ice, as all true exponents of literary phraseology 

 love to call them. The glaciers on Rainier are perform- 



A TOWERING PEAK 



Rugged scenery is one of the features of Mount Rainier National Park, and this 

 view is one of many which keep the observer interested for hours at a time. 



ing their age-old process of sculpturing the great stone 

 mountain into shapes that will, in future generations, 

 present puzzles to geologists. In fact, the Nisqually 

 Glacier is said to move about sixteen inches a day, cutting 

 and scouring the bottom of its channel with the great 

 boulders that are embedded in its bottom like diamonds 

 in the face of a drill. All the great glaciers of Mount 



Rainier are flowing quite 

 rapidly. On the other hand, 

 the glaciers of Glacier 

 National Park are largely 

 dormant. The large pro- 

 portion of them are moving 

 to some extent but they are 

 not actively engaged in the 

 real work of glaciers. They 

 seem to be exhausted and 

 in the last stages of their 

 activities. Some of them 

 are just huge cakes of ice 

 which are, by comparison, 

 mere bits of frozen residue 

 from great glaciers that 

 were, hundreds of centuries 

 ago, perhaps a thousand 

 times greater in size. They 

 rest quietly in the cup of 

 their great beds that were 

 carved from the living rock 

 in the days of their youth. 

 It is difficult for those 

 uninitiated into the mys- 

 teries of glacial action and 

 geological formations to ap- 

 preciate how a cake of ice 

 can cut a canyon a thou- 

 sand feet deep. But it is 

 their huge weight and slow 

 movement which accom- 

 plish the end, and when it is 

 realized that the ice of the 

 Nisqually Glacier alone is 

 more than one thousand 

 feet thick in some places, 

 the tremendous pressure 

 that it exerts can be partially appreciated. 



The streams from active glaciers are colored with a 

 slightly milky hue. The infinitesimally fine particles that 

 are the product of glacial scouring are held in suspension 

 or solution within the waters so that, after becoming 

 familiar with the appearance of glacier water, one may 

 invariably recognize the flow from beneath an active 

 glacier. This does not in any. way contaminate the water 

 or make it unfit for domestic use, as seems to be the 

 opinion of most tourists who see that for the first time. 



There is a fascination, which is not born only of 

 the danger involved, in climbing these great ice fields. 

 As a result many people who are physically and other- 

 wise not qualified to essay the exceedingly exhausting 

 ascent to Mount Rainier do so with the tourist's usual 



