MOUNT RAINIER 



let of a number of small lakes and ponds emptying into 

 the sound. Quite a family of Indians made their 

 permanent home in the vicinity of this creek in former 

 years, and were known as "Suilacoom Tillicum." 

 According to the Indian pronunciation of the name it 

 should have been spelled " Steelacoom," dwelling long 

 on the first syllable. 



I was at that time a first-lieutenant, young, and fond 

 of visiting unexplored sections of the country, and 

 possessed of a very prevailing passion for going to the 

 tops of high places. My quarters fronted Mount 

 Rainier, which is about sixty miles nearly east of Fort 

 Steilacoom in an air line. On a clear day it does not 

 look more than ten miles off, and looms up against the 

 eastern sky white as the snow with which it is cov- 

 ered, with a perfectly pyramidal outline, except at 

 the top, which is slightly rounded and broken. It is 

 a grand and inspiring view, and I had expressed so 

 often my determination to make the ascent, without 

 doing it, that my fellow-officers finally became in- 

 credulous, and gave to all improbable and doubtful 

 events a date of occurrence when I should ascend Mount 

 Rainier. 



My resolution, however, took shape and form about 

 the first of July. Nearly all the officers had been very 

 free to volunteer to go with me as long as they felt 

 certain I was not going ; but when I was ready to go, 

 I should have been compelled to go alone but for the 

 doctor, who was on a visit to the post from Fort Bel- 

 lingham. 



I made preparations after the best authorities I 

 could find, from reading accounts of the ascent of 

 Mont Blanc and other snow mountains. We made 

 for each member of the party an alpenstock of dry ash 

 with an iron point. We sewed upon our shoes an extra 

 sole, through which were first driven four-penny nails 

 with the points broken off and the heads inside. We 

 took with us a rope about fifty feet long, a hatchet, a 



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