MOUNT RAINIER 



fleeted from its course by a cliff of older felsitic rock, 

 more resisting than the lava. The consequence of 

 this deflection is a predominance of longitudinal over 

 transverse crevasses at this point, and an unusually 

 large moraine at its western side, which rises several 

 hundred feet above the surface of the glaciers, and 

 partakes of the character of both lateral and terminal 

 moraines : the main medial moraine of the glacier 

 joins this near its lower end. This medial moraine 

 proceeds from the cliff which bounds the ice cascade 

 source of the glacier on the north, and brings down a 

 dark porous lava which is only found high up on the 

 mountain near the crater. The position of the medial 

 moraine on the glacier would indicate that at least 

 half its mass came from the spur on the east, which is 

 probably the case. 



This spur, comprehending the whole mass between 

 the Cowlitz and White Rivers glaciers, has the shape 

 of a triangle whose apex is formed by a huge pinnacle 

 of rock, which, as its bedding indicates, once formed 

 part of the crust of the mountain, but now stands 

 isolated, a jagged peak rising about 3000 feet above 

 the glaciers at its foot, so steep that neither ice nor 

 snow rest upon it. One of the tributaries to the Cow- 

 litz glacier from this spur brings down with it a second 

 medial moraine, which is traceable to the mouth of the 

 glacier, though in general these tributary glaciers bring 

 no medial moraines. 



On the eastern slopes of this spur between the two 

 above named glaciers, spread secondary glaciers, fre- 

 quently of great width, but owing to the limited height 

 of their initial points, of inconsiderable length. These 

 end generally in perpendicular cliffs overhanging the 

 rocky amphitheaters at the heads of the smaller 

 streams which flow eastward into the Cowlitz. Look- 

 ing up from the bottom of one of these amphitheaters 

 one sees a semi-circular wall of nearly 2000 feet of 

 sheer rock, surmounted by about 500 feet of ice, from 



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