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.
Latitude 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
Institution, 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 latitude, and for the variation of gravity with
altitude 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 altitude 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 altitude 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 altitude, nine feet is an insignificant quantity, 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 pass 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 altitudes 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 altitude, so that the figures given are to be
regarded as rather close approximations, except in the case of Mazama
camp, the altitude 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 altitude
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 associated, 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.
[Illustration: 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 assistant to the
State Geologist of New Jersey and Principal 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 passed 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 massive and of the class 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. Associated 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 assumes 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 associates--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 massive. 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 masses 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 massive 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
circumference, but the pit is filled with snow and ice. Going across
the crater to the westward, one passes 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 mass 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.
[Illustration: FRANÇOIS ÉMILE MATTHES.]
XIV. GLACIERS OF MOUNT RAINIER
BY F. E. MATTHES
François Émile 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 Massachusetts Institute 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, clustering 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 noblest
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 mass, 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 principal cities of western Washington, in a
comfortable day's journeying, either by rail or by automobile. The
cooling sight of crevassed 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 altitude. 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
altitude 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 altitude. 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.
Mount Rainier stands, in round numbers, 10,000 feet high above its
immediate base, and covers 100 square miles of territory, or one-third
of the area of Mount Rainier National Park. In shape it is not a
simple cone tapering to a slender, pointed summit like Fuji Yama, the
great volcano of Japan. It is, rather, a broadly truncated mass
resembling an enormous tree stump with spreading base and irregularly
broken top. Its life history has been a varied one. Like all
volcanoes, Rainier has built up its cone with the material ejected by
its own eruptions--with cinders and bombs (steam-shredded particles
and lumps of lava), and with occasional flows of liquid lava that have
solidified into layers of hard, basaltic rock. At one time it attained
an altitude of not less than 16,000 feet, if one may judge by the
steep inclination of the lava and cinder layers visible in its flanks.
Then a great explosion followed that destroyed the top part of the
mountain, and reduced its height by some 2,000 feet. The volcano was
left beheaded, and with a capacious hollow crater, surrounded by a
jagged rim.
Later on this great cavity, which measured nearly 3 miles across, from
south to north, was filled by two small cinder cones. Successive
feeble eruptions added to their height until at last they formed
together a low, rounded dome--the eminence that now constitutes the
mountain's summit. It rises only about 400 feet above the rim of the
old crater, and is an inconspicuous feature, not readily identifiable
from all sides as the highest point. In fact, so broad is the
mountain's crown that from no point at its base can one see the top.
The higher portions of the old crater rim, moreover, rise to
elevations within a few hundred feet of the summit, and, especially
when viewed from below, stand out boldly as separate peaks that mask
and seem to overshadow the central dome. Especially prominent are Peak
Success (14,150 feet) on the southwest side, and Liberty Cap (14,112
feet) on the northwest side.