Rainier's
twenty-eight glaciers. A glance at the map will tell something of the
story. Extending northeasterly from the summit will be seen the greatest
unbroken glacial mass. Here are the Emmons and the Winthrop Glaciers,
much the largest of all. This is the quarter farthest from the sun, upon
which its rays strike at the flattest angle. The melting then is least
here. But still a more potent reason for their larger mass is found in
their position on the lee quarter of the peak, the prevailing winds
whirling in the snow from both sides.

The greater diversification of the other sides of the mountain with
extruding cliffs, cleavers, and enormous rock masses tends strongly to
scenic variety and grandeur. Some of the rock cleavers which divide
glaciers stand several thousand feet in height, veritable fences. Some
of the cliffs would be mountains of no mean size elsewhere, and around
their sides pour mighty glacial currents, cascading to the depths below
where again they may meet and even merge.

The Nisqually Glacier naturally is the most celebrated, not because of
scenic superiority, but because it is the neighbor and the playground of
the visiting thousands. Its perfect and wonderful beauty are not in
excess of many others; and it is much smaller than many. The Cowlitz
Glacier near by exceeds it in size, and is one of the stateliest; it
springs from a cirque below Gibraltar, a massive near-summit rock, whose
well-deserved celebrity is due in some part to its nearness to the
travelled summit trail. The point I am making is not in depreciation of
any of the celebrated sights from the southern side, but in emphasis of
the fact that a hundred other sights would be as celebrated, or more
celebrated, were they as well known. The Mount Rainier National Park at
this writing is replete with splendors which are yet to be discovered by
the greater travelling public.

The great north side, for instance, with its mighty walls, its
magnificently scenic glaciers, its lakes, canyons, and enormous areas of
flowered and forested pleasure-grounds, is destined to wide development;
it is a national park in itself. Already roads enter to camps at the
foot of great glaciers. The west side, also, with its four spectacular
glaciers which pass under the names of Mowich and Tahoma, attains
sublimity; it remains also for future occupation.

Many of the minor phenomena, while common also to other areas of snow
and ice, have fascination for the