CLIMBING MOUNT TACOMA. 



Olin D. Wheeler. 



In August, 1853, there journeyed 

 southward, from Port Townsend, 

 over the long, shining reaches of 

 Puget Sound, in a canoe paddled by 

 Indians, a white man, whose home was 

 in the far away east. He was a poet, 

 and his present surroundings were 

 poetic. As he was lazily borne along by 

 his dusky guides, when yet far down 

 the Sound, absorbed in dreamy medi- 

 tation, he saw " a vast white shadow in 

 the water," sharp in outline, clearly re- 

 flected in briny depths, with wonderful 

 detail and massiveness. He cast about 

 him to discover whence came this mar- 

 vellous picture. As his gaze followed 

 the reflection, he saw that the sup- 

 posed cloud was, in fact, a great moun- 

 tain. " It was a giant dome of snow, 

 swelling and seeming to fill the aerial 

 spheres, as its image displaced the blue 

 deep of tranquil water." Thus did 



Theodore Winthrop first look upon 

 Mount Tacoma, as he called it. 



All the poetry and ardor of this good 

 man's nature were justly aroused at sight 

 of the magnificent spectacle. Fascinated 

 by the sublime vision, his soul keenly 

 attuned to the harmonies that should 

 exist between natural objects and the 

 names applied to them, his whole be- 

 ing seems to have revolted against the 

 use of the name with which " Christians 

 have dubbed it in stupid nomenclature," 

 as he expressed it, and he thinks of it 

 and gives to it the aboriginal, euphonious 

 and distinctively American name of 

 *' Tacoma." 



Whether we agree with Winthrop or 

 not, as to the name of the mountain, we 

 can hardly help admiring the spirit of 

 independence that possessed the man ; 

 his intense Americanism, and the rever- 

 ent nature with which he writes of the 



THE FOREST ON THE NESQUALLY. 



239 



