GLACIERS OF MOUNT RAINIER 



Of interest in this connection is the great snow cliff 

 immediately west of Gibraltar Rock. Viewed from 

 the foot of that promontory, the sky line of the snow 

 castle fairly bristles with honeycomb spines ; while 

 below, in the face of the snow cliff, dark, wavy lines, 

 roughly parallel to the upper surface, repeat its pattern 

 in subdued form. They represent the honeycombs of 

 previous seasons, now buried under many feet of snow, 

 but still traceable by the dust that was imprisoned 

 with them. 



The snow cliff west of Gibraltar Rock is of interest 

 also for other reasons. It is the end of a great snow 

 cascade that descends from the rim of the old crater. 

 Several such cascades may be seen on the south side 

 of the mountain, separated by craggy remnants of the 

 crater rim. Above them the summit neves stretch in 

 continuous fields, but from the rim on down, the 

 volcano's slopes are too precipitous to permit a gradual 

 descent, and the neves break into wild cascades and 

 falls. Fully two to three thousand feet they tumble, 

 assembling again in compact, sluggish ice fields on the 

 gentler slopes below. 



Of the three cascades that feed the Nisqually Glacier 

 only the central one, it is to be observed, forms a con- 

 tinuous connection between the summit neves and the 

 lower ice fields. The two others, viz. the one next to 

 Gibraltar and the westernmost of the three, terminate 

 in vertical cliffs, over great precipices of rock. From 

 them snow masses detach at intervals and produce 

 thundering avalanches that bound far out over the 

 inclined ice fields below. Especially frequent are the 

 falls from the cliff near Gibraltar. They occur hourly 

 at certain times, but as a rule at periods of one or 

 more days. 



From the westernmost cascade avalanches are small 

 and rare. Indeed, as one watches them take place at 

 long intervals throughout a summer one can not but 

 begin to doubt whether they are in themselves really 



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