MOUNT RAINIER 



by the rush and roar of the waters, turned directly 

 down-stream, and in another instant our two pack 

 animals, with their riders, would have been swept away 

 in the furious rapids, had not Longmire with great 

 presence of mind turned their erratic course in the 

 right direction and safely brought them to the opposite 

 shore. Following the bottom along the river for some 

 distance, we climbed up the end of the bluff already 

 mentioned, by a steep zigzag trail, and skirted along its 

 brink for a mile. Far below us on the right rushed the 

 Nisqually. On the left the bluff fell off in a steep hill- 

 side thickly clothed with woods and underbrush, and 

 at its foot plowed the Owhap, a large stream emptying 

 into the Nisqually just below our ford. Another mile 

 through the woods brought us out upon the Mishell 

 Prairie, a beautiful, oval meadow of a hundred acres, 

 embowered in the tall, dense fir forest, with a grove 

 of lofty, branching oaks at its farther extremity, and 

 covered with green grass and bright flowers. It takes 

 its name from the Mishell River, which empties into the 

 Nisqually a mile above the prairie. 



We had marched sixteen miles. The packs were 

 gladly thrown off beneath a lofty fir ; the animals were 

 staked out to graze. A spring in the edge of the woods 

 afforded water, and while Mr. Coleman busied himself 

 with his pipe, his flask, his note-book, his sketch-book, 

 and his pouch of multifarious odds and ends, the other 

 members of the party performed the duties incident to 

 camp-life : made the fire, brought water, spread the 

 blankets, and prepared supper. The flags attached to 

 our Alpine staffs waved gayly overhead, and the sight 

 of their bright folds fluttering in the breeze deepened 

 the fixed resolve to plant them on Takhoma's hoary 

 head, and made failure seem impossible. Mr. Coleman 

 announced the altitude of Mishell Prairie as eight 

 hundred feet by barometer. By an unlucky fall the 

 thermometer was broken. 



The march was resumed early next morning. As 



102 



