Mount Rainier Part 14

I regard the method of reduction outlined above as possessing decided advantages over any other that could be applied to the problem in hand; especially because it admits of using the isobaric charts with great freedom and effectiveness, thereby increasing the reliability of the result to a marked extent.

The reduction made, there remained for the final calculation the following data:

Barometric pressure at the summit of Rainier 17.708 inches Barometric pressure at mean base 30.130 inches Mean temperature of air column 49 deg. F.

Lat.i.tude of Mount Rainer 46 deg. 48 min.

In making the calculation I used the amplified form of Laplace's formula given in the recent publications of the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution, with the constants there adopted. Perhaps for the general reader it may be important to remark that this formula, besides the barometric pressures, contains corrections for the temperature of the air column; for lat.i.tude, and for the variation of gravity with alt.i.tude in its effect on the weight of the mercury in the barometer; for the average humidity of the air; and for the variation of gravity with alt.i.tude in its effect on the weight of the air. I used the latest edition of the Smithsonian tables, but afterward verified the result by a numerical solution of the formula--the alt.i.tude being, as stated at the beginning, 14,528 feet above sea level.

It should be noted as an evidence of the great care and foresight with which Professor McClure planned his work and the success with which he carried it out, that the result of his observations agrees within nine feet with that obtained by the United States Geological Survey in 1895, using, as we may suppose, the most refined methods of triangulation--the latter estimate being 14,519 feet. In connection with so great an alt.i.tude, nine feet is an insignificant quant.i.ty, and the close correspondence in the results of the two methods of measurement is truly remarkable. I am not inclined to regard it as accidental, but as due to the most careful work in both cases.

Having a full knowledge of all the available data, I am perhaps better prepared than anyone else to pa.s.s judgment upon the result set forth; and while it would be folly to give a numerical estimate of the probable error, I feel justified in saying that no single barometric determination is ever likely to prove more accurate than this one of Professor McClure's. At any rate, the outstanding error is now too small to justify the hazard of any future attempts.

From the observations made by Professor McClure while en route to the summit, together with simultaneous records from Seattle and Portland, the following alt.i.tudes are obtained:

FEET ABOVE SEA LEVEL Eatonville 870 Kernahan's ranch 1,880 Longmire springs 2,850 Mazama camp 5,932 Camp-No-Camp 12,700 South side Crater Rainier 14,275

The data in these cases were not sufficient to admit an elaborate working-out of the alt.i.tude, so that the figures given are to be regarded as rather close approximations, except in the case of Mazama camp, the alt.i.tude of which rests upon four observations and is correspondingly reliable.

Professor McClure's barometer had a notable history in mountaineering.

To quote the professor's own words:

"It has twice looked upon the beauties of the Columbia river from the summit of Mount Hood. It was the first barometer taken to the top of Mount Hood, and gave the true elevation, 11,225 feet, in place of 17,000 or 18,000 feet previously claimed. This barometric measurement of Mount Hood was made in August, 1867, by a government party under the direction of Lieutenant R. S. Williamson. The second barometric measurement of Mount Hood was made with the same instrument in August, 1870, by Professor George H. Collier."

In August, 1891, the barometer was carried by Professor McClure to the summit of Diamond Peak; in August, 1894, by the writer, to the summit of the middle peak of the Three Sisters, in Oregon, giving an alt.i.tude of 10,080 feet, not hitherto published; in July, 1895, Professor McClure took it with the Mazamas to Mount Adams, and in July, 1897, to the summit of Mount Rainier.

A new tube was filled and inserted about two years ago, Professor McClure preparing the mercury by distillation and the writer boiling it in the tube. The vacuum was exceptionally perfect. The comparison sheet previously mentioned showed that the instrument on the occasion of its last trip read .005 inch above standard.

In thus completing the labors of Professor McClure, with whom I was so long and so intimately a.s.sociated, I feel a very melancholy satisfaction. For his sake, I have spared no pains in collecting all the useful data that could be obtained, to make the result reliable to the last degree possible in such a case. I leave that result as a sufficient guarantee of the accuracy of the whole work from beginning to end.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PROFESSOR HENRY LANDES.]

XIII. FIELD NOTES ON MOUNT RAINIER, 1905

BY PROFESSOR HENRY LANDES

Henry Landes is Professor of Geology and Dean of the College of Science, University of Washington, and he has also served as State Geologist of Washington, since 1895. He was born at Carroll, Indiana, on December 22, 1867. He graduated from the University of Indiana in 1892 and obtained the Master of Arts degree at Harvard University in 1893. He was a.s.sistant to the State Geologist of New Jersey and Princ.i.p.al of the High School at Rockland, Maine, before being elected to his present professorship at the University of Washington in 1895. For a year and a half, 1914-1915, he was Acting President of the University of Washington.

He has published many articles and pamphlets on geological subjects. The one here given appeared in Mazama, published in December, 1905, by the Mazamas in Portland, Oregon. It is reproduced here with the permission of the author and of the mountaineering club.

The Columbia River afforded to the first people who came to Washington and Oregon the easiest and most feasible route across the Cascade Mountains. It was through this gateway that travel pa.s.sed from one side of the range to the other until the advent of the railways in comparatively recent years. The early travelers along the river who were of an observing or scientific bent, noted that the rocks were, in general, dark, heavy and ma.s.sive and of the cla.s.s commonly known as basalt. Here and there a sort of pudding stone or agglomerate was observed, which in some instances might represent a sedimentary deposit, but which here had clearly an igneous origin.

The observations of the early travelers were supplemented later by the further studies of geologists; and from the facts noted along the Columbia River, the generalization holds good to a great extent on the Oregon side, but it is by no means true on the Washington side, as has been shown by later studies. Granite rocks are encountered within a few miles of the Columbia River as one travels north along the Cascade Range. a.s.sociated with these granite rocks are found rocks of a metamorphic type, such as gneiss, schists, quartzites, crystalline limestone, slate, etc. Such rocks exist south of Mount Rainier, but are not conspicuous. North of this point, however, and throughout all of the northern Cascades they form the great bulk of the rock.

In other words, in the Cascades of Washington, igneous activity has been much more common in the region south of Rainier than in that north of the mountain. When the first observations were made upon the great lava flows of southeastern Washington, which form a part of the greatest lava plain in the world, it was supposed that the lava had its origin in the volcanoes of the Cascades. Later investigations have shown this view to be erroneous. The lava of the plain has come directly from below through great longitudinal fissures instead of through circular openings such as one finds in volcanoes.

It is probable that the Cascades, like most other mountains, have had several different periods of uplift. We have several notable examples of mountains which have had an initial uplift and then have been reduced to base by erosion. By a second upheaval the plain has been converted into a plateau, and this in time a.s.sumes a very rugged, mountainous character as a result of the combined forces of air and water. Eventually these same forces would reduce the region to a plain again. Just how many times this thing has happened in the Cascades we do not know. Bailey Willis has shown that in the northern Cascades, at least, the whole country was reduced to a plain prior to the last uplift, which took place in comparatively recent times. Out of this plateau, formed by the uplifting of the plain, has arisen through the active attack of erosive forces the truly mountainous character of the district. Erosion has been at the maximum in the mountains because of the heavy precipitation. Precipitation in the high mountains being chiefly in the form of snow has led to the formation of glaciers, producing thereby a rapidity of erosion of the first order. The active work of ice and running water has given to the mountains an extremely rugged appearance, characterized by valleys of great depth extending into the very heart of the mountains and with precipitous divides.

It must be understood that the time consumed in the uplifting of the Cascades, and the conversion from plain to plateau, was of considerable duration. With the beginning of the uplift, the sluggish streams of the plain became rejuvenated, and took up actively once more the work of erosion. By the time the maximum uplift was reached, the plateau had lost to a certain degree its character of extreme levelness. The streams had already entrenched themselves in rather conspicuous valleys. It is believed that the great volcanoes of Washington--Rainier and its a.s.sociates--began their activities about the time the uplift described above reached its maximum height. In the vicinity of Rainier the rock of the old plateau is granite; and the volcano may be said to be built upon a platform of that material. On the north side of the mountain granite appears conspicuously at a height of about 7,000 feet; while on the south side it appears at points varying from 5,000 to 6,000 feet above the sea.

That the surface of the granite platform was irregular and uneven may be seen in the walls of the Nisqually canyon, near the lower terminus of the glacier. As one ascends the canyon to the glacier, the contact between the lava rock and the granite shows quite plainly on both the right and the left side. On the left the contact is at least 1,000 feet above that on the right side. A little way above the lower end of the glacier, on each side of the canyon, a good opportunity presents itself to study the contact of the lava and granite. The granite at this place shows clearly that it was once a land surface; and one may note weathering for a distance downward of seventy-five or one hundred feet. The upper portion of the granite shows the usual characteristics of weathering, namely, the conversion of feldspar into kaolin, the oxidation of iron, etc. At this point the lava overlying the granite is quite basic and ma.s.sive. The first flow reached a thickness here of fully three hundred feet, and exhibits a fine development of basaltic structure.

In following up the canyon walls one observes that the activity of the volcano for some time was characterized almost exclusively by lava flows. In the main the lava is an andesite, and is very generally of a porphyritic structure. Some of the lava flows were of great extent, and reached points many miles distant from the center of the mountain.

While the earlier stages of the activity of the volcano were characterized by lava flows of great thickness, by and by explosive products began to appear, and interbedded with the sheets of lava one finds bombs, lapilli, cinders, etc.

It may be said in general that as the volcano grew in years it changed more and more from eruptions of the quiet type to those of the explosive character. It is plain that a long period of time was consumed in the making of that great volcanic pile, and that the eruptions were by no means continuous. It is clearly shown that after certain outflows of lava, quietude reigned for a time; that at last the surface of the rock became cool and that erosive agents broke it up into great ma.s.ses of loose stones. In later flows of lava these stones were picked up and cemented into layers of pudding stone, which are styled agglomerates.

Rocks of an agglomerate type are well shown in the walls of Gibraltar. This ma.s.sive pile is largely made up of boulders, great and small, rather loosely held together by a lava cement. The work of frost and ice, expansion and contraction, loosens the boulders readily, and their constant falling from the cliffs gives to this part of the mountain's ascent its dangerous character. While this volcano belongs to a very late period in the history of the earth, it is very clear that there has been no marked activity for many thousands of years. The presence of steam, which is emitted from the hundreds of small openings about the crater, undoubtedly shows the presence of heated rock at no great distance below the surface. Rock is a poor conductor, however, and cooling takes place with very great slowness after a depth of comparatively few feet is reached.

Like most volcanoes, the composite character of the cone is shown on Mount Rainier. After a certain height is reached in the building up of a cone, the rising lava in the throat, or the explosive activities within, sometimes produce an opening through the walls of the cone, and a new outlet to the surface is formed. This often gives the volcano a sort of hummocky or warty appearance, and produces a departure from the symmetrical character. In the case of Rainier it seems to the writer that upon the summit four distinct craters, or outlets, are distinguishable. The first crater reached by the usual route of ascent is the largest one, and may be styled the East crater.

It is nearly circular in outline, with a diameter of about one-half mile. Its walls are bare of snow for nearly the whole of its circ.u.mference, but the pit is filled with snow and ice. Going across the crater to the westward, one pa.s.ses over what is really the highest point on the mountain, and then goes down into a smaller crater, or the West crater. This is similar in character and outline to its neighbor, but here the many jets of issuing steam are much more prominent. At a point a few hundred feet lower on the mountain-side there is a peak known as Liberty Cap. A cross-section of the cap is in plain view and shows very clearly that this is a minor cone or local point of eruption. It is made up of rock very similar to the main ma.s.s of the mountain; and it is likely that the volcanic activity of the mountain was centered here for some time. Looking directly south from the West crater one sees at a distance of less than a mile another peak which is entirely snow-covered; but which may represent an instance parallel with that of the peak on the north side.

Mount Rainier is so deeply covered with ice and snow that the glacial aspects of the mountain are far more conspicuous than the volcanic ones. The facts about the vulcanism and the history of the growth of the mountain are very difficult to study; and it will be a long time before they are fully known. The glaciers, on the other hand, are very conspicuous, comparatively easy of access, and the many facts concerning their extent, rate of motion, recession, or advance, may be quite readily determined. The glaciers, while very prominent at the present time, were at one time much larger than now. There are many things which go to prove that they formerly reached much farther down the valleys.

From the top of the mountain one may see off to the westward for many miles south of Puget Sound prairies of large size, covering a great many square miles. These prairies represent the plains of gravel derived from the melting glaciers, when these stood in their vicinity.

From these points of maximum extension the glaciers have slowly receded to their present position.

That the glaciers are receding at the present time is a matter of common observation. At the lower end of the Nisqually glacier the advancing line of vegetation is about one-fourth mile below the present limit of the ice. It is the opinion of Mr. Longmire that the glacier has retreated about that far since he first came to the valley, twenty-five years ago. General Stevens was able to point out several instances of notable shrinkages in the glaciers, especially in the Paradise glacier, since his ascent of the mountain in 1870. It will interest students of glaciers to know that some permanent monuments have been set up at the lower end of the Nisqually glacier; and that arrangements have been made whereby the retreat of the ice may be accurately measured from year to year.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FRANcOIS eMILE MATTHES.]

XIV. GLACIERS OF MOUNT RAINIER

BY F. E. MATTHES

Francois emile Matthes was born at Amsterdam, Holland, on March 16, 1874. After pursuing studies in Holland, Switzerland and Germany, he came to the United States in 1891 and graduated from the Ma.s.sachusetts Inst.i.tute of Technology in 1895. Since 1896 he has been at work with the United States Geological Survey, mostly in the field of topography.

He has been honored by and is a member of many scientific societies.

His topographic work on the maps of Yosemite and Mount Rainier National Parks made for him many appreciative friends on the Pacific Coast. His pamphlet on "Mount Rainier and Its Glaciers" was published by the United States Department of the Interior in 1914. He secured consent for its republication in the present work.

The impression still prevails in many quarters that true glaciers, such as are found in the Swiss Alps, do not exist within the confines of the United States, and that to behold one of these rare scenic features one must go to Switzerland, or else to the less accessible Canadian Rockies or the inhospitable Alaskan coast. As a matter of fact, permanent bodies of snow and ice, large enough to deserve the name of glaciers, occur on many of our western mountain chains, notably in the Rocky Mountains, where only recently a national reservation--Glacier National Park--was named for its ice fields; in the Sierra Nevada of California, and farther north, in the Cascade Range. It is on the last-named mountain chain that glaciers especially abound, cl.u.s.tering as a rule in groups about the higher summits of the crest. But this range also supports a series of huge, extinct volcanoes that tower high above its sky line in the form of isolated cones. On these the snows lie deepest and the glaciers reach their grandest development. Ice clad from head to foot the year round, these giant peaks have become known the country over as the n.o.blest landmarks of the Pacific Northwest. Foremost among them are Mount Shasta, in California (14,162 feet); Mount Hood, in Oregon (11,225 feet); Mount St. Helens (9,697 feet), Mount Adams (12,307 feet), Mount Rainier (14,408 feet), and Mount Baker (10,730 feet), in the State of Washington.

Easily king of all is Mount Rainier. Almost 250 feet higher than Mount Shasta, its nearest rival in grandeur and in ma.s.s, it is overwhelmingly impressive, both by the vastness of its glacial mantle and by the striking sculpture of its cliffs. The total area of its glaciers amounts to no less than 45 square miles, an expanse of ice far exceeding that of any other single peak in the United States. Many of its individual ice streams are between 4 and 6 miles long and vie in magnitude and in splendor with the most boasted glaciers of the Alps. Cascading from the summit in all directions, they radiate like the arms of a great starfish. All reach down to the foot of the mountain and some advance considerably beyond.

As for the plea that these glaciers lie in a scarcely opened, out-of-the-way region, a forbidding wilderness as compared with maturely civilized Switzerland, it no longer has the force it once possessed. Rainier's ice fields can now be reached from Seattle or Tacoma, the two princ.i.p.al cities of western Washington, in a comfortable day's journeying, either by rail or by automobile. The cooling sight of creva.s.sed glaciers and the exhilarating flower-scented air of alpine meadows need no longer be exclusive pleasures, to be gained only by a trip abroad.

Mount Rainier stands on the west edge of the Cascade Range, overlooking the lowlands that stretch to Puget Sound. Seen from Seattle or Tacoma, 60 and 50 miles distant, respectively, it appears to rise directly from sea level, so insignificant seem the ridges about its base. Yet these ridges themselves are of no mean height.

They rise 3,000 to 4,000 feet above the valleys that cut through them, and their crests average 6,000 feet in alt.i.tude. Thus at the southwest entrance of the park, in the Nisqually Valley, the elevation above sea level, as determined by accurate spirit leveling, is 2,003 feet, while Mount Wow (Goat Mountain), immediately to the north, rises to an alt.i.tude of 6,045 feet. But so colossal are the proportions of the great volcano that they dwarf even mountains of this size and give them the appearance of mere foothills. In the Tatoosh Range Pinnacle Peak is one of the higher summits, 6,562 feet in alt.i.tude. That peak rises nearly 4,000 feet above the Nisqually River, which at Longmire has an elevation of 2,700 feet, yet it will be seen that Mount Rainier towers still 7,846 feet higher than Pinnacle Peak.

From the top of the volcano one fairly looks down upon the Tatoosh Range, to the south; upon Mount Wow, to the southwest; upon the Mother Mountains, to the northwest, indeed, upon all the ridges of the Cascade Range. Only Mount Adams, Mount St. Helens, and Mount Hood loom like solitary peaks above the even sky line, while the ridges below this line seem to melt together in one vast, continuous mountain platform. And such a platform, indeed, one should conceive the Cascade Range once to have been. Only it is now thoroughly dissected by profound, ramifying valleys, and has been resolved into a sea of wavelike crests and peaks.