io8 Sierra Club Bulletin. 



THE MOTION OF THE NISQUALLY GLACIER, 

 MT. RAINIER * 



By Joseph N. Le Conte. 



Mt. Rainier is an extinct volcanic cone situated in the 

 western portion of the State of Washington. Its highest 

 point, as determined by the U. S. Geological Survey, is 

 in Latitude 46° 51', and Longitude 121° 45'.5, and its 

 altitude, according to the latest barometric measurements, 

 is about 14,400 feet. The mountain rises in the midst 

 of a heavily timbered region on the western slope of the 

 Cascade Range. This region does not average over 4,000 

 feet above sea-level, so that the mountain rises as a great 

 isolated mass, visible for many miles. 



The humid climate of this portion of the continent 

 gives rise to an enormous precipitation along the coast, 

 most of which falls between November and May. Above 

 the level of 6,000 feet, almost the whole of this is in the 

 form of snow. A system of glaciers is thus formed on 

 Mt. Rainier, which has a common and continuous neve 

 mass around the crater extending down the slopes for a 

 distance of about a mile. Below this the neve masses 

 become separated by thin rocky spurs, and finally con- 

 solidate into a very perfect series of eleven radiating 

 ice-streams, having a striking resemblance on a map to 

 the rays of a starfish. The circle which includes the ends 

 of these glaciers at the present time is about ten miles 

 in diameter. 



During the summer of 1905, the writer, as a member 

 of the Sierra Club's Outing to Paradise Park on the 

 south slopes of this mountain, had the opportunity of 

 making a few measurements of the motion of the Nis- 



* This article appeared in "Zeitschrift fur Gletscherkunde," I. Band, 1906, 

 edited by Professor Dr. Ed. Brtickner and published by Gebriider Boru- 

 traeger, Berlin, S. W. ri Dessauer Strasse, 29. — Editor. 



