162 C. King — Glaciers on Mountains of the Pacific Slope. 



into the Columbia, and the Nisqually, Puyallup and White 

 rivers which empty into Puget Sound. In accordance with 

 your instructions, Mr. A. D. Wilson and I visited this mountain 

 m the early part of October, 1870, and carried the work of mak- 

 ing its complete survey, both geological and topographical as 

 far as the lateness of the season and the means at our disposal 

 would permit. As the topographical work has not yet been 

 plotted, the iigures given in my notes are merely estimates, and 

 liable to subsequent correction. I herewith transmit an ab- 

 stract from my notes upon the glaciers, embracing those of 

 rather more than half the slopes of the mountain, those on the 

 eastern side, from the extreme southern to the extreme northern 

 point. 



The summit of Tachoma is formed by three peaks, a south- 

 ern, an eastern, and a northwestern : of these the eastern is the 

 highest; those on the south and northwest, being apparently 

 a few hundred feet lower, are distant about a mile and a halt 

 to two miles from this, and separated by deep valleys. The 

 eastern peak, which would seem to have formed originally the 

 middle of the mountain mass, is a crater about a quarter of a 

 mile m diameter of very perfect circular form. Its sides are 

 bare for about 60 feet from the rim, below which they are 

 covered by a nkS having a slope of from 28° to 31°. This 

 neve extending from the shoulders of the southwestern peak to 

 those of the northern, a width of several miles, descends to a 

 vertical distance of about 2000 feet below the crater rim, an im- 

 mense sheet of white granular ice, having the general form oi 

 the mountain surface, and broken only by long transverse 

 crevasses, one of those observed being from one to two mUes m 

 length: it is then divided up by the several jutting rock-mass^ 

 or shoulder of the mountain into the Nisqually, Cowlitz an^ 

 W hite River glaciers, falling in distinct ice cascades for abo^ 

 rfUUO leet at very steep angles, which sometimes approach tue 

 perpendicular. From the foot of these cascades flow the glacie'^ 

 proper, at a more gentle angle, growing narrower and sinking 

 deeper mto the mountain as they descend. From the interven- 

 ing spurs, which slope even more gradually, they receive nianj 

 tributary glaciers, while some of these secondary glaciers form 

 independent streams, which only join the mam river manj 



rlt ^i^'^ ^^'^ ^«d «f ttie glaciers. 



The Nisqually, the narrowest of the three main glacieij 

 above mentioned, has the most sinuous course, varying "J 

 airection from southwest to south, while its lower extremity ^ . 

 somewhat west of south of the main peak : it receives most Ji 

 tll:l i"^^ ^""^ *^^ «P^r to the east, and has a comparaJ^J ^J 

 regular slope m its whole length below the cascades There 

 are some indications of dirt-bands on its surface, when ^e>' 



