GLACIERS OF MOUNT RAINIER 



probably was depressed to levels between 4,000 and 

 6,000 feet. Not only the cirque glaciers about the 

 Mother Mountains, but all the neighboring ice streams 

 of the glacial epoch originated within this zone, as is 

 indicated by the altitudes of the cirques throughout 

 the adjoining portions of the Cascade Range. By their 

 confluence these ice bodies produced a great system of 

 glaciers that filled all the valleys of this mountain belt 

 and even protruded beyond its western front. 



To these extensive valley glaciers the ice flows of 

 Mount Rainier stood in the relation of mere tributa- 

 ries. They descended from regions of rather scant 

 snowfall, for the peak in those days of frigid climate 

 rose some 10,000 feet above the zone of heaviest snow- 

 fall, into atmospheric strata of relative dryness. It 

 may well be, indeed, that it carried then but little more 

 snow upon its summit than it does to-day. 



The North Mowich Glacier is the northernmost of 

 the series of ice bodies on the west flank of Mount 

 Rainier. Like the Carbon Glacier, it heads in a cirque 

 at the base of the Liberty Cap massif, fed by direct 

 snow precipitation, by wind drifting, and by ava- 

 lanches. The cirque is small and shallow, not as 

 capacious even as either of the twin recesses in the 

 Carbon Glacier's amphitheater. As a consequence the 

 ice stream issuing from it is of only moderate volume ; 

 nevertheless it attains a length of 3f miles. This is due 

 in part to the heavy snows that reenforce it through- 

 out its middle course and in part to overflows from the 

 ice fields bordering it on the south. These ice fields, 

 almost extensive enough to be considered a distinct 

 glacier, are separated from the North Mowich Glacier 

 only by a row of pinnacles, the remnants evidently of 

 a narrow rock partition or "cleaver," now demolished 

 by the ice. The lowest and most prominent of the 

 rock spires bears the appropriate name of "The Needle" 

 (7,587 feet). 



The debris-covered lower end of the glacier splits 



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