IX. EXPLORATIONS ON THE NORTHERN 

 SLOPES, 1881-1883 



BY BAILEY WILLIS 



THE Northwest for April, 1883, which was Number 2 of Volume I 

 of that magazine, contained an article by Bailey Willis, Assist- 

 ant Geologist of the Northern Transcontinental Survey. The 

 article is entitled "Canyons and Glaciers. A Journey to the 

 Ice Fields of Mount Tacoma." Mr. Willis was born at Idle- 

 wild-pn-Hudson, New York, on May 31, 1857. It speaks well 

 for his skill and training that he should have attained to such 

 a position at twenty-four years of age. 



Since then he has worked out a great career in the United States 

 Geojogical Survey, in China and in other parts of the world. 

 He is now Professor of Geology at Stanford University. He 

 has kindly revised for this publication the product of his 

 younger years. And there has also been found a photograph 

 of the geologist as he appeared when the surveys were made. 



To this day, people who visit the northern slopes and parks of 

 the mountain become familiar with the Bailey Willis trail and 

 from Moraine Park they get a view of the wonderful Willis 

 Wall named in his honor. 



The Puyallup River, which empties into Puget Sound 

 near New Tacoma, heads in three glaciers on Mount 

 Tacoma. During the summer months, when the ice 

 and snow on the mountains are thawing, the water is 

 discolored with mud from the glaciers and carries a 

 large amount of sediment out to Commencement Bay. 

 If the Coast Survey charts are correct, soundings near 

 the centre of the bay have changed from one hun- 

 dred fathoms and "no bottom" in 1867, to eighty 

 fathoms and "gray mud" in 1877. But when the 

 nights in the hills begin to be frosty, the stream be- 

 comes clearer, and in winter the greater volume of 

 spring water gives it a deep green tint. 



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