1922] EDWARDS, GEOLOGICAL WORK AT RAINER NATIONAL PARK 61 



blue colors of the upper snow fields. The surface of the glacier is 

 traversed by great gaping crevasses which mark points where the ice 

 has been split asunder by the more precipitous descent of some portion 

 of its bed. These crevasses are curved by the movement of the ice, 

 the central part lying farthest down stream. Farther up are dome- 

 shaped elevations in the center of the glacier. The ice is here cut into 

 great angular blocks by immense crevasses which probably reach to the 

 very base of the glacier. These indicate obstructions in the bed of the 

 glacier, where the ice is split in two by the strains produced by the ice 

 stream in forcing its way over them. 



Further down the stream, the crevasses automatically close when 

 the tension is removed, and the surface of the ice becomes much 

 smoother and easier ,of access. Much of the lower portion of the ice 

 is covered with debris. The rock dust, fragments of stone, large masses 

 of rock and other material fall down onto the ice from the sides of 

 the valley, and are heaped up to form a long ridge paralleling the edge 

 of the glacier ,on each side. These constitute the lateral moraines. 

 Also the material in its lower layers, which the glacier has picked up 

 from its bed, is brought to the surface, and the melting leaves a thin 

 coating of rock covering large areas on both sides of the main ice sheet. 

 In its very lowest part a third ridge is present, situated in the middle 

 of the ice sheet, and constituting a medial moraine. This can be traced 

 upward as a sort of band or streak along the ice sheet to its point of 

 origin at the junction of two of the tributary glaciers far up on the 

 mountain. This medial moraine, therefore, represents the blending of 

 the adjacent lateral moraines of these two coalescing streams. In the 

 last mile of the course of the glacier the medial moraine becomes a 

 very prominent ridge, as much as forty feet in height. It consists of a 

 large amount of rock material, sufficient to protect the ice beneath from 

 the rays of the sun and so retard its melting. This protective action 

 continues to make the ridge higher and higher, and eventually at the 

 very snout of the glacier the medial moraine and the two lateral 

 moraines come together, the whole ice sheet then being covered by a 

 blanket of rock and rock dust. 



A much steeper and longer climb leads from Paradise Inn directly 

 northward to a place called Panorama Point, from which Paradise 

 Glacier is readily accessible. This glacier lies between the canyon of 

 the Nisqually on the west and that of the Cowlitz on the east. It is a 

 typical inter-glacier which, in appearance, looks more like a snow field 

 than a true moving sheet of ice. The upper slopes of the Paradise 



