GLACIERS OF MOUNT RAINIER 



ness. On the map it presents almost a worm-like ap- 

 pearance, heightened perhaps by its strongly sinuous 

 course. In spite of its meager width, which averages 

 about 1,000 feet, the ice stream attains a length of 

 almost 4 miles and descends to an altitude of 4,800 

 feet. This no doubt is to be attributed in large meas- 

 ure to the protecting influence of the box canyon. 



It receives one tributary of importance, the Success 

 Glacier, which heads in a cirque against the flanks of 

 Peak Success. This ice stream supplies probably one- 

 third of the total bulk of the Kautz Glacier, as one 

 may infer from the position of the medial moraine that 

 develops at the point of confluence. In the lower 

 course of the glacier this medial moraine grows in 

 width and height until it assumes the proportions of 

 a massive ridge, occupying about one-third of the 

 breadth of the ice stream's surface. 



A singularly fascinating spectacle is that which the 

 moraine-covered lower end of the glacier presents from 

 the heights of Van Trump Park. A full 1,000 feet 

 down one looks upon the ice stream as it curves around 

 a sharp bend in its canyon. 



A short distance below the glacier's terminus, the 

 canyon contracts abruptly to a gorge only 300 feet in 

 width. So resistant is the columnar basalt in this 

 locality that the ice has been unable to hew out a wider 

 passage. Not its entire volume, however, was squeezed 

 through the narrow portal ; there is abundant evidence 

 showing that in glacial times when the ice stream was 

 more voluminous it overrode the rock buttresses on 

 the west side of the gorge. 



The name of P. B. Van Trump, the hardy pioneer 

 climber of Mount Rainier, has been attached to the 

 interglacier situated between the Kautz and the Nis- 

 qually Glaciers. This ice body lies on the uneven sur- 

 face of an extensive wedge that tapers upward to a 

 sharp point one of the remnants of the old crater 

 rim. A number of small ice fields are distributed on 



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