MOUNT RAINIER 



canyons which, beyond the glacier ends, widen out into 

 densely forested valleys, each containing a swift- 

 flowing river. No less than a dozen of these ice-fed 

 torrents radiate from the volcano in all directions, 

 while numerous lesser streams course from the snow 

 fields between the glaciers. 



Thus the cone of Mount Rainier is seen to be dis- 

 sected from its summit to its foot. Sculptured by its 

 own glacier mantle, its slopes have become diversified 

 with a fretwork of ridges, peaks, and canyons. 



The first ice one meets on approaching the moun- 

 tain from Longmire Springs lies in the upper end of 

 the Nisqually Valley. The wagon road, which up to 

 this point follows the west side of the valley, winding 

 in loops and curves along the heavily wooded moun- 

 tain flank, here ventures out upon the rough bowlder 

 bed of the Nisqually River and crosses the foaming 

 torrent on a picturesque wooden bridge. A scant 

 thousand feet above this structure, blocking the valley 

 to a height of some 400 feet, looms a huge shapeless 

 pile of what seems at first sight only rock debris, gray 

 and chocolate in color. It is the dirt-stained end of 

 one of the largest glaciers the Nisqually. From a 

 yawning cave in its front issues the Nisqually stream, 

 a river full fledged from the start. 



The altitude here, it should be noted, is a trifle under 

 4,000 feet (elevation of bridge is 3,960 feet) ; hence 

 the ice in view lies more than 10,000 feet below the 

 summit of the mountain, the place of its origin. And 

 in this statement is strikingly summed up the whole 

 nature and economy of a glacier such as the Nisqually. 



A glacier is not a mere stationary blanket of snow 

 and ice clinging inert to the mountain flank. It is a 

 slowly moving streamlike body that descends by virtue 

 of its own weight. The upper parts are continually 

 being replenished by fresh snowfalls, which at those 

 high altitudes do not entirely melt away in summer ; 

 while the lower end, projecting as it does below the 



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