XI. EXPLORING THE MOUNTAIN AND ITS 

 GLACIERS, 1896 



BY PROFESSOR I. C. RUSSELL 



THE name of Professor Israel Cook Russell is permanently asso- 

 ciated with Mount Rainier. He was one of America's noted 

 geologists. He was born near Garrattsville, New York, 

 on December 10, 1852. Graduating from the University of 

 the City of New York in 1872, he at once began his career in 

 science. In 1874, he was a member of the United States party 

 at Queenstown, New Zealand, to observe the transit of Venus. 

 From 1878 to 1892, he wrought valuable work in geology for 

 the United States Geological Survey. This took him to Alaska 

 and various other parts of the country. He succeeded 

 Alexander Winchell as Professor of Geology in the University 

 of Michigan in 1892 and continued to spend his summers in 

 field work. One of his trips was to the West Indies during the 

 eruption of Mount Pelee. 



Most of his summer trips were devoted to the mountains and 

 valleys of Oregon and Washington. It was during one of 

 these trips, in the summer of 1896, that he made the explora- 

 tions of Mount Rainier the extensive record of which, fully 

 illustrated, appeared in the Eighteenth Annual Report of the 

 United States Geological Survey for 1896-1897. The essential 

 portions of that record are here reproduced by permission of 

 Director George Otis Smith of the Survey, who also kindly 

 furnished a portrait of his former colleague. 



Professor Russell was honored with the Doctor of Laws degree 

 by his alma mater and by the University of Wisconsin. He 

 died suddenly at the zenith of his power in 1906, leaving 

 a widow, Mrs. J. Augusta (Olmstead) Russell and three 

 daughters. An earnest appreciation of his character and work 

 by G. K. Gilbert was published in The Journal of Geology, 

 Volume XIV, number 8, November-December, 1906. When 

 The Mountaineers Club ascended the mountain in 1909 they 

 named in his honor Russell Cliff, a majestic crest near the 

 summit and overlooking the Winthrop and Emmons glaciers, 

 and later a glacier on the northern slope, near Carbon Glacier, 

 was named Russell Glacier. 



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