The Name ''Mt. Rainier: 



93 



George Vancouver did not ignore Indian names, when- 

 ever he could obtain them from the Spaniards and the 

 fur traders. He had used all the Hawaiian names he 

 could gather; and on this coast he refers to the promon- 

 tory Classet, Tatooche's Island, Clayoquot and Nootka 

 sounds. The Indians he met with were not desirable com- 

 panions, and he was not collecting folk-lore. He was 

 presenting fresh discoveries in geography to the world; 

 he was settling a commercial problem. 



His narrative and his charts indicate his acceptance 

 of every Spanish name he could ascertain from the navi- 

 gators and Catholic missionaries. He left the impress 

 of his high character upon the good fathers and the 

 Spanish officers through three years of intercourse; as 

 he did upon Kamehameha and the Hawaiians. 



One of the two principal magazines on the Pacific Coast 

 devoted to mountain cHmbing is the ''Mazama, a Record 

 of Mountaineering in the Pacific Northwest," published 

 at Portland, Oregon. The number for October, 1900, is 

 devoted to the ascent of Mt. Rainier, and the barometric 

 determination of its height. Throughout the text no 

 other name is referred to, and the illustrations carry the 

 historical title June, 1897. In the annual number of 

 Mazama, 1905, recounting the second ascent of Mt. 

 Rainier by that body of snow peak climbers, and some 

 of the members of the Sierra Club, a full and very accept- 

 able array of incidents and impressions is presented by 

 several writers ; and in general the Vancouver name for 

 the mountain is retained. Henry Gannett, the geographer 

 of the United States Geological Survey, writes that "the 

 King of all these volcanic cones of the Cascade Range 

 is Alount Rainier." One professor uses the name in 

 ''deference to supposed geographic authority"; but the 

 consensus of expression is, "Mount Rainier." 



The same can be said of the 1906 Bulletin of the 

 Sierra Club; the first title is "The Sierra Club Ascent 

 of Mt. Rainier." The Weather Bureau Service uses the 

 name; and very naturally the Joint Commissioners of 



