1922] EDWARDS, GEOLOGICAL WORK AT RAINER NATIONAL PARK 65 



glacier formation is the source of sixteen of the twenty- four glaciers 

 by which the mountain is surrounded. The remaining eight, while they 

 descend in part from the extreme summit of the mountain, are enlarged 

 at this horizon and attain their maximum extent here. 



Another feature noted in crossing Paradise Glacier was a large 

 number of very small worms, about an inch in length, some of white 

 and some of brown color, which live apparently at the surface of the 

 glacier. These belong to a rather obscure form of animal life and 

 seem to gain their living from the organic matter blown upon the 

 glacier as dust. These worms exist in great numbers on many of the 

 ice slopes, but are to be seen only on cloudy or cold days, as they 

 burrow deep into the ice when the sunshine warms the surface. Also 

 patches of snow of a reddish color were noted due to the presence of 

 microscopic plant life. Many insects were found which had drifted 

 or had been blown out upon the expanse of snow and ice, and in many 

 cases had been unable to return to their natural habitat. Many were 

 still alive though so chilled as to be helpless. However, these occasional 

 visitors to the realm of ice and snow are not suited to the climate and 

 are entirely different from the other forms mentioned whose natural 

 habitat is in this region where it seems impossible for life to exist. 



The eastern boundary of Paradise Glacier and of the Stevens and 

 Williwakas, Glaciers which are merely lobes extending out from the 

 main mass of the Paradise, is formed by a row of lofty rock pinnacles 

 known as the Cowlitz Rocks. The ascent onto these rocks from the 

 western side is very easy, but they drop off on their eastern edge in a 

 sheer precipice for about eighteen hundred feet to the Cowlitz Glacier. 

 The summit of these rock pinnacles, which is seven thousand four hun- 

 dred and fifty-seven feet above the sea, was the highest point on the 

 mountain reached by the party during the summer. They consist en- 

 tirely of masses of lava which have been broken into many angular 

 fragments by the action of water freezing in the various crevices which 

 formerly traversed the rock. In their present condition, shown in 

 figure 37, they are an enormous pile of very sharp angular rocks. 



Directly beneath the Cowlitz Rocks on the eastern side, flows the 

 Cowlitz Glacier, one of the finest glaciers on Mt. Rainier. It starts 

 from the very crater of the mountain and flows to the southeastward, 

 at first as two parallel ice streams, the easternmost of which has been 

 called Ingraham Glacier. These are separated from each other by a 

 long line of rock pinnacles known as the Cathedral Rocks, and ending 

 at the top in Gibraltar Rock. Svich a line of rock separating two dis- 



