

GLACIERS OF MOUNT RAINIER 



In the region where the new crevasses open the sur- 

 face drainage comes abruptly to an end. Here gaping 

 chutes of deepest azure entrap the torrents and the 

 waters rush with musical thunder to the interior of 

 the glacier and finally down to its bed. 



At its lower border the Paradise Glacier splits into 

 several lobes. The westernmost sends forth the Para- 

 dise River, which, turning southwestward, plunges 

 over the Sluiskin Fall (named for the Klickitat Indian 

 who guided Van Trump and Hazard Stevens to the 

 mountain in 1870, when they made the first success- 

 ful ascent) and runs the length of Paradise Valley. 

 The middle lobe has become known as Stevens Glacier 

 (named for Hazard Stevens) and ends in Stevens Creek, 

 a stream which almost immediately drops over a preci- 

 pice of some 600 feet the Fairy Falls and winds 

 southeastward through rugged Stevens Canyon. The 

 easternmost lobes, known collectively as Williwakas 

 Glacier, send forth two little cascades, which, uniting, 

 form Williwakas Creek. This stream is a tributary of 

 the Cowlitz River, as is Stevens Creek. 



Immediately adjoining the Paradise Glacier on the 

 northeast, and not separated from it by any definite 

 barrier, lies the Cowlitz Glacier, one of the stateliest 

 ice streams of Mount Rainier. It flows in a south- 

 easterly direction, and burrows its nose deeply into the 

 forest-covered hills at the mountain's foot. Its upper 

 course consists of two parallel-flowing ice streams, in- 

 trenched in profound troughs, which they have en- 

 larged laterally until now only a narrow, ragged crest 

 of rock remains between them, resembling a partition 

 a thousand feet in height. At the upper end of this 

 crest stands Gibraltar Rock. 



At the point of confluence of the two branches there 

 begins a long medial moraine that stretches like a 

 black tape the whole length of the lower course. To 

 judge by its position midway on the glacier's back, the 

 two tributaries must be very nearly equal in strength, 



