Our Noblest Volcano 



52i 



NEW DRIFT - 



TO 

 75' 



Old drift - 



75' 

 TO 

 150' 



FOSSIL ICE - 



10' 

 TO 

 15' 



Present . 

 LONGITUDINAL SECTION OF MORAINE) MESA, EXPOSED BY NEW STREAM CUTTING 



are eight ice fields on the mountain which 

 have been recognized as glaciers and 

 given names. 



I have mapped, in addition to these, 

 four smaller fields as glaciers, of which 

 the one between the Ladd and the Sandy 

 is the largest and most interesting. The 

 Sandy reaches the lowest elevation, about 

 5,700 feet, while the Eliot is the longest, 

 about an even two miles from berg- 

 schrund to nose. 



The three glaciers on the north side 

 of the mountain present a most glorious 

 picture as they cascade down from near 

 the summit in great broken masses. 

 After separating, below their common 

 gathering ground, they assume the char- 

 acter of true alpine glaciers. The New- 

 ton Clarke, on the east side, though of 

 great beauty, partakes more of the char- 

 acter of a cliff glacier. With the excep- 

 tion of the Zigzag, which is compara- 

 tively smooth, they are all very greatly 

 crevassed and travel over them is diffi- 

 cult. On the whole, they are all probably 

 receding, but owing to several recent 

 hard winters they now appear to be ad- 

 vancing a little, except in the case of the 

 Zigzag and the White River, where an- 

 other condition intervenes, the volcano's 

 heat. 



IS THE ANCIENT VOECANO AWAKENING? 



The volcano has not been in eruption 

 for untold centuries, except as the fissure 

 flow that dams Bull Run Lake and the 

 one that made the lava beds to the north- 

 east be regarded as related to it. Since 

 the mountain was first visited, however, 

 there has been steam escaping from 



various places on it, but mostly from 

 Crater Rock, together with gas, gener- 

 ally hydrogen sulphide. 



Professor Russell, in his book on 

 American Volcanoes, gives a picture 

 taken in 1882 of a so-called fumarole on 

 the south slope of Mount Hood, which 

 was, as near as I can determine, just east 

 of Crater Rock. This picture shows a 

 well-shaped depression in the glacier 

 from which steam was probably escaping. 

 This fumarole apparently became in- 

 active, or later visitors do not mention it. 



In the last three years, however, the 

 sleeping volcano has been warming up 

 and stirring in its sleep. Last summer 

 the old fumarole had so devioped that 

 the White River Glacier is now cut in 

 two at this point and its bed between 

 Crater Rock and Steel Cliff, for 150 feet 

 along its course, is exposed. Steam and 

 noxious gases are escaping from fissures 

 in the rock thus laid bare. 



On Crater Rock steam escapes from 

 numerous fissures and many places are 

 too hot to hold the hand upon, but the 

 most active place is on the north side of 

 the rock, in a depression which is com- 

 monly called the crater. Here a consid- 

 erable area formerly covered by the Zig- 

 zag Glacier has been laid bare. 



On the 28th of August, 1907, my main 

 camp was at Government Camp, five 

 miles from the summit of Hood. For 

 several days previous to this I had been 

 with a side camp on the east side of the 

 mountain. From there, during that 

 time, it was noticed that Steel Cliff, the 

 high east wing of the crater, was steam- 

 ing more than usual. We had been hav- 



