30 OUR NATIONAL PARKS 



made a national park and guarded while yet its 

 bloom is on ; 1 for if in the making of the West 

 Nature had what we call parks in mind, — places 

 for rest, inspiration, and prayers, — this Rainier 

 region must surely be one of them. In the 

 centre of it there is a lonely mountain capped 

 with ice ; from the ice-cap glaciers radiate in 

 every direction, and young rivers from the gla- 

 ciers ; while its flanks, sweeping down in beauti- 

 ful curves, are clad with forests and gardens, and 

 filled with birds and animals. Specimens of the 

 best of Nature's treasures have been lovingly 

 gathered here and arranged in simple symmetrical 

 beauty within regular bounds. 



Of all the fire-mountains which, like beacons, 

 once blazed along the Pacific Coast, Mount 

 Rainier is the noblest in form, has the most in- 

 teresting forest cover, and, with perhaps the ex- 

 ception of Shasta, is the highest and most 

 flowery. Its massive white dome rises out of its 

 forests, like a world by itself, to a height of four- 

 teen thousand to fifteen thousand feet. The for- 

 ests reach to a height of a little over six thousand 

 feet, and above the forests there is a zone of the 

 loveliest flowers, fifty miles in circuit and nearly 



1 This was done shortly after the above was written. " One of the 

 most important measures taken during the past year in connection 

 with forest reservations was the action of Congress in withdrawing 

 from the Mount Rainier Forest Reserve a portion of the region imme- 

 diately surrounding Mount Rainier and setting it apart as a national 

 park." (Report of Commissioner of General Land Office, for the year 

 ended June, 1899.) But the park as it now stands is far too small. 



