850 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[June i, 1907. 
of small angular chips. In the course of a few 
hundred feet across this peculiar formation there 
is a noticeable increase in the size of the pieces 
of slate in the conglomerate. Still further on 
the slate is in large chunks and finally in big 
blocks with only stringers of porphyry as a 
binder. A cut and polished specimen of the finest 
breccia makes a fanciful mosaic, showing the 
angular fragments of bluish slate inlaid in gray, 
green and brick red, crystalline, feldspathic 
matrix. 
There is no evidence of recent activity of this 
volcano, nor are there any alarming indications 
that it will ever be active again. True, there 
are live vents on the sides of the cone where the 
vapors of sulphur are continually emitted, where 
the lava is still hot and steam jets issue with 
rumbling and violence, but the snows of recur¬ 
ring seasons have blanketed it for centuries as 
if to smother out the internal fires, and it can 
hardly be considered now more than the linger¬ 
ing of a heat which once warmed the surround¬ 
ing regions to fluorescence, the base of the 
mountain to bright red, and where it is now 
buried under a mantle of perpetual snow its sum¬ 
mit once shone with a luminous glare whiter 
than the electric arc. But the freak among freaks 
in this interesting region is the tableland already 
referred to. It was described by Prof. Henry 
Landes, the State geologist of Washington, a 
Mazama who spent three days in camp, in an 
entertaining camp-fire lecture, as a remnant of a 
once elevated plain which had been eroded away. 
But a more thorough and careful study of this 
tableland, the imposing promontory of which 
facing camp was named Mazama Dome, and an 
investigation of the formation of the bordering 
regions, proves conclusively that this plateau, 
being composed of porphyry, is simply intrusive 
and never had any relation to any elevated plain 
more than to force itself up through the pre¬ 
existing sedimentary formations of which the 
broken and uneven tributary country is com¬ 
posed. 
It rose in its magnificence and grandeur from 
the bowels of the earth like Mount Baker did, of 
which it is simply part and parcel. It probably 
rose to its present eminence above its surround¬ 
ings, and, especially out of its immediate bed 
of porphyry, somewhat later after it had cooled 
enough to hold its shape, by renewed pressure 
directly under it, shoving it up like a cork out 
of a bottle. The writer was strongly inclined 
to take the plug clear out and look inside to see 
exactly what was the cause of it. There is much 
evidence that this secondary uplift came at a 
much later day than the volcanic eruption or 
eruptions which produced the main features of 
this district, the most important of these evi¬ 
dences being the fact that the disintegration about 
the vertical walls of this tableland is very much 
less than about the sides of any other cliffs 
around, irrespective of height, position or material 
to be eroded. The walls of it are crumbling away 
and accumulating about the base in rock slides, 
somewhat faster on the sunny sides. If it were 
possible to count the annual layers of rock on 
these slides, which have flaked off the walls above 
by the action of the summer sun and frosts of 
winter, like the age of trees by the rings of 
growth, it would be easy to determine when 
Mazama Dome last made a move to rival Cole¬ 
man Peak or get in better view of the parent 
cone. 
A remarkable panorama of scenery can be wit¬ 
nessed from this tableland. Fine views can be 
had from all points of the compass by merely 
turning the camera about without changing the 
tripod. The Mazatnas were daily upon the Dome. 
Some made before-breakfast climbs to see the 
sunrise among the saw-teeth of the Cascades and 
the first tinting of light and cream, and pink and 
fire on the snow fields of Mount Baker, looking 
from the sun toward the west. To the best of 
my knowledge there are but few mountain goat 
trails by which it is possible for a person to 
ascend to the glacier on the flat top table of 
Mazama Dome, and these are exceedingly pre¬ 
cipitous and difficult to climb. 
One morning after we had been in camp five 
CLIMBING COLEMAN PEAK. 
days and everybody had become familiar with 
the different objects of interest near by, an or¬ 
ganized training expedition set out to cross the 
glacier to Coleman Peak and climb Mount Baker 
in miniature. Over fifty participated. Many 
were skillful mountain climbers, but some had 
here their first business experience with the alpen¬ 
stock. There was some vigorous exercise climb¬ 
ing to reach the summit over the tip of it and 
down again on the opposite side. Coasting on 
the glacier was thoroughly enjoyed, and the re¬ 
turn to camp, toward evening, was made without 
mishap. 
Again three days later a second training trip 
was taken, this time along the ridge in the oppo¬ 
site direction. Forty people took hold of the 
life line and, led by F. H. Kiser, one of the 
leading spirits in Mazama outings, they climbed 
the dizzy heights of the Dome by the nearest 
goat trail and were off across the snow on its 
summit down the cliffs on the other side by ropes 
and away over the rough rocks and snow drifts, 
down a thousand feet and up again, along the 
divide leading toward Shuksan. This day the 
wind had veered from the southwest, its usual 
direction, and the air was thick and brown from 
forest fires in the counties to the south. The 
canons and valleys below us were submerged 
in a sea of smoke and all outlines were com¬ 
pletely obscured from vision. Our own altitude 
was hazy and objects three to five miles away 
could be but indistinctly seen. The crags of 
Mount Shuksan held their white snow fields high 
above the grim and murky atmosphere. No 
picture can impart the weird and imposing gran¬ 
deur of such a view. 
On Kiser went like a whirlwind, with the rest 
hanging to the life line like lugs on the tail of 
a kite, and kept it up, as well as down, straight 
away along the ridge until noon hour. All had 
been advised in the morning before leaving camp 
that it would not be necessary to take lunches 
along, and the supposition was that the trip would 
be an easy one. We were now beyond Austin 
Pass and had reached the first outcroppings of 
sedimentary rocks, where there is an immense 
dyke of gold-bearing ore, heavily mineralized 
with iron sulphides, presenting to view on the 
rugged hillside, where the ore is oxidized, a bright 
red surface conspicuous in clear weather for 
miles away. 
It seemed a shame to go back now when we 
were so near to Shuksan, but hunger being the 
better part of valor we indulged our thirst with 
ice water and pulled the life line for Camp 
Sholes. One would have supposed under all the 
circumstances that the route back would have 
been the easiest one possible to select, but Kiser 
did not seem to think so, hence the line went 
with the leader. In starting for camp he took a 
bee line, or the life line as he chose to desig¬ 
nate it, over a perpendicular cliff to demonstrate 
to the uniniated that it is possible to go down 
with a line even where one could not get up. 
He said things were merely incidental, for we 
were practicing now for the heroic climb of Old 
Baker and must be prepared for difficulties. The 
trip to the summit of the mountain would be 
four times as hard and we might be a whole 
day or even two without food. 
He was neither to be deviated from his pur¬ 
pose nor from the direct course he planned to 
make the return. In one place we barely missed 
a basaltic column as high and steep as the Status 
of Liberty. This we considered a streak of good 
luck. Nothing would have been any inducement 
to go to the top of that monolith unless dinner 
had been ready at the apex! In another place, 
when crossing a great rock slide which had 
slipped down a mountain side and buried a por¬ 
tion of a glacier, we discovered by the drum 
head sound of our footsteps that the ice beneath 
the layer of rocks had been burrowed out by a 
glacial stream and we were in reality marching 
over the thin roof of a great cavern thirty feet 
wide by seventy-five feet deep. This was enough 
to make one’s hair stand on end. But Kiser led 
on. We would not have been much surprised 
had our leader taken us straight through Iceberg 
Lake as we came in on the home stretch. AH 
survived, and on the following day the official 
climb of Mount Baker was begun. 
In the meantime two different exploring parties 
had been in the field trying to map out a route 
