EXPLORATIONS ON THE NORTHERN SLOPES 



head of Milk Creek and Carbon River, illuminating 

 these cliffs as with the glow of volcanic fires, while 

 twilight deepens in the valley. The next turn of the 

 river brings Mount Tacoma again in view. Close on 

 the right a huge buttress towers up, cliff upon cliff, 

 2,500 feet, a single one of the many imposing rock 

 masses that form the Ragged Spur between Carbon 

 River and Milk Creek. The more rapid fall of the river, 

 the increasing size of the boulders, show the nearness of 

 the glacier. Turning eastward to the south of Cres- 

 cent Mountain, you pass the group of trees that hide it. 



This, first sight is a disappointment. The glacier is 

 a very dirty one. The face is about 300 feet long and 

 thirty to forty feet high. It entirely fills the space be- 

 tween two low cliffs of polished gray rock. Through- 

 out the mass the snows of successive winters are in- 

 terstratified with the summers' accumulations of earth 

 and rock. From a dark cavern, whose depths have 

 none of the intense blue color so beautiful in crevasses 

 in clear ice, Carbon River pours out, a muddy torrent. 

 The top of the glacier is covered with earth about six 

 inches deep, contributed to its mass by the cliffs on 

 either side and by an island of rock, where a few pines 

 grow, entirely surrounded by the ice river. The eye 

 willingly passes over this dirty mass to the gleaming 

 northeast spur of the mountain, where the sunlight 

 lingers after the chill night wind has begun to blow from 

 the ice fields. 



The disappointment of this view of the glacier leaves 

 one unprepared for the beauty of that from Crescent 

 Mountain. The ascent from a point a short distance 

 down the river is steep, but not dangerous. The lower 

 slopes are heavily timbered, but at an elevation of 4,000 

 feet juniper and dwarf pine are dotted over the grassy 

 hillside. Elk, deer and white mountain goats find here 

 a pleasant pasture ; their trails look like well trodden 

 sheep paths on a New England hill. A curious badger- 

 like animal, sitting erect on his hind legs, greets one 



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