164 a King— Glaciers on Mountains of the Pacific Slope. 



On the eastern slopes of this spur between the two above 

 named glaciers, spread secondary glaciers, frequently of great 

 width, but owing to the limited height of their initial points, of 

 inconsiderable length. These end generally in perpendicular 

 cliifs overhanging the rocky amphitheaters at the heads of the 

 smaller streams which flow eastward into the Cowhtz. Look- 

 ing up from the bottom of one of these amphitheaters one sees 

 a semi-circular wall of nearly 2000 feet of sheer rock, sur- 

 mounted by about 500 feet of ice, from under which small 

 streams of water issue, falling in silvery cascades on to the 

 green bottom below. 



A ridge of high jagged peaks connects this spur with the 

 mam range of the Cascade Mts. in the east, and forms the wa- 

 ter-shed between the White and Cowlitz rivers. From the 

 connecting saddle one can look northward across the brink of 

 SIX glaciers, which all contribute to the White river; of these 

 the first four come from the triangular spur already mentioned 

 and are of comparatively little extent. The first two are, how- 

 ever, interesting from the vein structure which they exhibit : 

 they both originate in an irregularly oblong basin, having the 

 shape somewhat of an inclined ellipse, turning on its longer 

 diameter, the outlets of the glacier being opposite the foci 

 been from a high point the veins form concentric lines generally 

 parallel to the sides of the basin ; the ends of those towards the 

 center gradually bend round, until they join together in the 

 11 ,1^ ^o^^^ ^' ^n<^ finally just above the outlets form two 

 small ellipses. They thus constantly preserve a direction at 

 right angles to that of the pressure exerted, downward by the 

 movement of the ice mass, and upward by the resistance to 

 tins movement of the rock mass between the two outlets. 



ihe mam White Eiver glacier, the grandest of the whole, 

 pours straight down from the rim of the crater in a northeast- 

 erly direction, and pushes its extremity farther out into the 

 valley than any of the others. Its greatest width on the steep 

 Slope of the mountain must be four or five miles, narrowing 

 toward Its extremity to about a mile and a half; its length can 

 be scarcely less than ten miles. The great eroding power o 

 glacial ice is stnkingly illustrated in this glacier, which seem 

 tL^^^ ?* ^"l"^^ ^^<^ carried away on the northeastern sideoi 

 the mountain, frilly a third of its mass. The thickness of rock 

 De!kr^lf\'^T" ^7 *^^ ^^"« on either side, and the i^lated 

 peak at the head of the triangular spur in which the beddmgot 

 he successive flows of lava^ forming the original mountain 

 tTmat'J T"^ '^^f^' and conformable, may 1)6 rough y.e^ 

 oTtff .^^TT^^* ^^^r a n^ile. Of the thickness of the i 

 may probably be reckoned in thousands of feet. 



