MOUNT RAINIER 



Mount Rainier, from the top, bore south-southwest, 

 apparently not more than ten miles distant. A profile 

 of the mountain indicates that it has a terminal crater, 

 as well as some on its flanks. The barometer stood 

 at 24-950 in. : five thousand and ninety-two feet. 

 There was another, to the north-northeast, covered with 

 snow, and one to the west appeared about two hundred 

 feet higher than the place where the observations were 

 taken. This latter had suffered from fire in the same 

 way as La Tete, and showed only a few patches of snow. 

 To the eastward, a range of inferior height, running 

 north and south, was in view, without snow. 



On the western ascent of this mountain, the pines were 

 scrubby ; but at the summit, which was a plain, about 

 a mile in length by half a mile wide, they were straight 

 and towering, about eighty feet in height, without any 

 limbs or foliage, except at the top. The distance 

 travelled over the top was about five miles. On de- 

 scending the east side, the snow was much deeper and 

 softer, but the horses managed to get along well, and 

 without accident. 



Lieutenant Johnson, in following the party, missed 

 the trail, and lost his way for three or four hours. On 

 discovering the camp of those who had gone before, 

 on the opposite side of a stream, he attempted to cross 

 it on a log, in doing which his foot slipped, and he was 

 precipitated into the water. Although his first thought 

 was to save the chronometer from accident, it was too 

 late, for the watch had stopped ; it was not, however, 

 so far injured as not to be set a-going, and it continued 

 to go during the remainder of the journey : the only 

 use I have been able to make of his subsequent obser- 

 vations, was to obtain the relative meridian distances 

 between the points visited, without the absolute longi- 

 tude. It is needless to say, that I placed little or no 

 dependence on them, in constructing the map. 



Although the horses had, with one or two exceptions, 

 reached the eastern side of the mountain, yet they, 



