MOUNT RAINIER 



ever, that one meets with the conditions most favor- 

 able for the development of glaciers. Below this zone 

 the summer heat largely offsets the heavy precipita- 

 tion, while above it the snowfall itself is relatively 

 scant. Within the belt the annual addition of snow 

 to the ice fields is greater than anywhere else on Mount 

 Rainier. The result is manifest in the arrangement 

 and distribution of the glaciers on the cone. By far 

 the greater number originate in the vicinity of the 

 io,ooo-foot level, while those ice streams which cas- 

 cade from the summit, such as the Nisqually, are in 

 a sense reborn some 4,000 feet lower down. 



A striking example of an ice body nourished wholly 

 by the snows falling on the lower slope of Mount 

 Rainier is the Paradise Glacier. In no wise connected 

 with the summit neves, it makes its start at an eleva- 

 tion of less than 9,00x3 feet. Situated on the spreading 

 slope between the diverging canyons of the Nisqually 

 on the west and of the Cowlitz on the northeast, it 

 constitutes a typical "interglacier," as intermediate 

 ice bodies of this kind are termed. 



Its appearance is that of a gently undulating ice 

 field, crevassed only toward its lower edge and re- 

 markably clean throughout. No debris-shedding cliffs 

 rise anywhere along its borders, and this fact, no doubt, 

 largely explains its freedom from morainal accumula- 

 tions. 



The absence of cliffs also implies a lack of protecting 

 shade. Practically the entire expanse of the glacier 

 lies exposed to the full glare of the sun. As a conse- 

 quence its losses by melting are very heavy, and a 

 single hot summer may visibly diminish the glacier's 

 bulk. Nevertheless it seems to hold its own as well 

 as any other glacier on Mount Rainier, and this ability 

 to recuperate finds its explanation in the exceeding 

 abundance of fresh snows that replenish it every winter. 



The Paradise Glacier, however, is not the product 

 wholly of direct precipitation from the clouds. Much 



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