VIII. SECOND SUCCESSFUL ASCENT, 1870 

 BY S. F. EMMONS 



LATER in the same year, 1870, when Stevens and Van Trump made 

 their first successful ascent, the achievement was also accom- 

 plished by S. F. Emmons and A. D. Wilson of the Geological 

 Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel. Samuel Franklin 

 Emmons was born at Boston on March 29, 1841. He died 

 painlessly and unexpectedly on the eve of his seventieth birth- 

 day, March 28, 1911. 



George F. Becker gave him a fervent eulogy which appeared in the 

 Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers 

 for 1911. He says : "There is not a geological society or even 

 a mining camp from Arctic Finland to the Transvaal, or from 

 Alaska to Australia, where Emmons' s name is not honored and 

 his authority recognized." With all his fame and ability, the 

 biographer declares, he was modest to diffidence. 



His account of the ascent is in the form of a letter to his chief, 

 Clarence King, who published it in the American Journal of 

 Science for March, 1871. It is here reproduced from that 

 source. The photograph of Mr. Emmons was obtained from 

 the United States Geological Survey. It will be noticed that 

 Mr. Emmons calls the mountain Tachoma. 



The Mountain's largest glacier, to which he refers with enthusiasm, 

 was for a long time known by the name of White River which it 

 feeds. It is peculiarly appropriate that that glacier should 

 bear the name given it on the official map of the United States 

 Geological Survey Emmons Glacier. 



The glaciers of Mt. Tachoma, or Rainier as it is 

 more commonly called, form the principal sources of 

 four important rivers of Washington Territory, viz : 

 the Cowlitz, which flows into the Columbia, and the 

 Nisqually, Puyallup and White rivers which empty 

 into Puget Sound. In accordance with your instruc- 

 tions, Mr. A. D. Wilson and I visited this mountain 

 in the early part of October, 1870, and carried the work 



135 



