FIRST ATTEMPTED ASCENT, 1857 



lingering illness to the precautions I took in eating when 

 satisfying the first cravings of hunger, on our return to 

 camp. 



We are not likely to have any competitors in this 

 attempt to explore the summit of Mount Rainier. 

 Packwood and McAllister, two citizens of Pierce 

 County, Washington Territory, explored up the Nes- 

 qually, and crossed over to the head of the Cowlitz 

 River, and thence by what was called Cowlitz Pass 

 (since called Packwood Pass), to the east side of the 

 mountains, searching for a trail to the mining regions 

 of the upper Columbia. More recently, surveyors in 

 the employ of the Pacific Railroad Company have been 

 surveying through the same route for a railway passage. 



When the locomotive is heard in that region some 

 day, when American enterprise has established an ice- 

 cream saloon at the foot of the glacier, and sherry- 

 cobblers may be had at twenty-five cents half-way up 

 to the top of the mountain, attempts to ascend that 

 magnificent snow-peak will be quite frequent. But 

 many a long year will pass away before roads are 

 sufficiently good to induce any one to do what we did 

 in the summer of 1857. 



93 



