MOUNT RAINIER 



in the parts they had recently visited. The berries 

 were just beginning to ripen, while in the plains, not 

 twenty miles distant, they were already over. Old 

 Tidias determined to accompany them to Nisqually, 

 taking with him his son, and lending them several 

 horses. The Spipen, up which they passed, was now 

 hemmed in by mountain ridges, occasionally leaving 

 small portions of level ground. They encamped at 

 the place they had occupied on the 3oth of May. 



The vegetation, since they had passed this place, had 

 so much advanced that they had difficulty in recognis- 

 ing it again. The wet prairies were overgrown with 

 rank grass, from one to two feet in height. After a short 

 rest at the foot of the mountain, they began its ascent, 

 and reached the crest of the ridge in about three hours. 

 On every side they found a low growth of shrubs, which 

 they had not suspected when it was covered with snow, 

 and causing the summit to differ essentially from the 

 broad ridge they had crossed between the Yakima and 

 Pischous rivers. They encamped for the night on the 

 edge of a wet prairie, which afforded pasturage for their 

 horses. 



The next day they passed through several similar 

 prairies, and descended the western slope of the moun- 

 tain, where they found more patches of snow than on 

 the east side. This was just the reverse of what they 

 had found on their previous passage ; the season, too, 

 was evidently much less advanced. This circumstance 

 was supposed to be owing to the denser forest on the 

 west, as well as the absence of elevated plains. 



They encamped the same night at the little prairie 

 before spoken of, at the foot of the western slope. 

 Before reaching it, they met a party of men and women 

 carrying a sick chief over the mountain, who was 

 evidently dying. It was affecting to see him stretching 

 forth his hand to them as they passed, as if desiring to 

 be friends with all before he died. He died the same 

 night. 



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