MOUNT RAINIER 



Evidences of similar wholesale recession are to be 

 observed at the ends of the other glaciers of Mount 

 Rainier, but the measure of their retreat is not re- 

 corded with the precision that was possible in the case 

 of the Nisqually Glacier. Eyewitnesses still live at 

 Longmire Springs who can testify to the former ex- 

 tension of the Nisqually Glacier down to the site of 

 the wagon bridge. 



As one continues the ascent by the wagon road a 

 partial view of the glacier's lower course is obtained, 

 and there is gained some idea of its stream-like char- 

 acter. More satisfying are the views from Paradise 

 Park. Here several miles of the ice stream (its total 

 length is nearly 5 miles) lie stretched out at one's 

 feet, while looking up toward the mountain one beholds 

 the tributary ice fields and ice streams, pouring, as it 

 were, from above, from right and left, rent by innu- 

 merable crevasses and resembling foaming cascades 

 suddenly crystallized in place. The turmoil of these 

 upper branches may be too confusing to be studied 

 with profit, but the more placid lower course presents a 

 favorable field for observation, and a readily accessible 

 one at that. 



A veritable frozen river it seems, flowing between 

 smooth, parallel banks, half a mile apart. Its surface, 

 in contrast to the glistening ice cascades above, has the 

 prevailingly somber tint of old ice, relieved here and 

 there by bright patches of last winter's snow. These 

 lie for the most part in gaping fissures or crevasses 

 that run athwart the glacier at short intervals and 

 divide its body into narrow slices. In the upper course, 

 where the glacier overrides obstacles in its bed, the 

 crevasses are particularly numerous and irregularly 

 spaced, sometimes occurring in two sets intersecting at 

 right angles, and producing square-cut prisms. Far- 

 ther down the ice stream's current is more sluggish 

 and the crevasses heal up by degrees, providing a 

 united surface, over which one may travel freely. 



