MOUNT RAINIER 



more than half a mile apart, while their mouths are 

 three miles apart. Several smaller glaciers serve to 

 swell the waters of the Cowlitz. In like manner the 

 glaciers from the western side form the Puyallup, and 

 those from the northern and northwestern sides the 

 White River. The principal White River glacier is 

 nearly ten miles long, and its width is from two to four 

 miles. Its depth, or the thickness of its ice, must be 

 thousands of feet. Streams and rivulets under the 

 heat of the sun flow down its surface until swallowed 

 by the crevasses, and a lakelet of deep blue water an 

 eighth of a mile in diameter has been observed upon 

 the solid ice. Pouring down from the mountain, the 

 ice by its immense weight and force has gouged out a 

 mass upon the northeastern side a mile in thickness. 

 The geological formation of Takhoma poorly resists the 

 eroding power of these mighty glaciers, for it seems to 

 be composed not of solid rock, but of a basaltic con- 

 glomerate in strata, as though the volcanic force had 

 burst through and rent in pieces some earlier basaltic 

 outflow, and had heaped up this vast pile from the 

 fragments in successive strata. On every side the 

 mountain is slowly disintegrating. 



What other peak can offer to scientific examination 

 or to the admiration of tourists fourteen living glaciers 

 of such magnitude, issuing from every side, or such 

 grandeur, beauty, and variety of scenery ? 



At daylight we broke up our camp at Sluiskin's Falls, 

 and moved slowly, on account of Van Trump's hurt, 

 down the ridge about five miles to Clear Creek, where 

 we again regaled ourselves upon a hearty repast of mar- 

 mots, or "raw dog," as Van Trump styled them in 

 derision both of the viand and of the cookery. I was 

 convinced from the lay of the country that Clear Creek 

 flowed into the Nisqually, or was, perhaps, the main 

 stream itself, and that the most direct and feasible route 

 back to Bear Prairie would be found by following down 

 the valley of these streams to the trail leading from 



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