Glacier: elevation,
8,000 feet. Seven miles away are the huge eastern peaks of the
Tatoosh. The Cascades beyond break in Cispus Pass, and rise, on the
left, to the glacier summits called Goat Peaks. The truncated cone of
Mt. Adams, more than forty miles away, crowns the sky-line.]

{p.088}
[Illustration: These views show the larger of the two comparatively
modern and small craters on the broad platform left by the explosion
which decapitated the Peak. Prof. Flett measured this crater, and
found it 1,600 feet from north to south, and 1,450 feet from east to
west. The other, much smaller, adjoins it so closely that their rims
touch. Together they form an eminence of 1,000 feet (Crater Peak), at
a distance of about two miles from North Peak (Liberty Cap) and South
Peak (Peak Success). At the junction of their rims is the great snow
hill (on right of view) called "Columbia's Crest." This is the actual
summit. The volcano having long been inactive, the craters are filled
with snow, but the residual heat causes steam and gases to escape in
places along their rims.]

[Illustration {p.089}]

This mound of snow is the present actual top. Believing it the highest
point in the United States south of Alaska, a party of climbers, in
1894, named it "Columbia's Crest." This was long thought to be the
Mountain's rightful distinction, for different computations by experts
gave various elevations ranging as high as 14,529 feet, with none
prior to 1902 giving less than 14,444 feet. Even upon a government map
published as late as 1907 the height is stated as 14,526 feet. In view
of this variety of expert opinion, the flattering name, not
unnaturally, has stuck, in spite of the fact that the government
geographers have now adopted, for the Dictionary of Altitudes, the
height found by the United States Geological Survey in 1902, 14,363
feet. That decision leaves the honor of being the loftiest peak
between Alaska and Mexico to Mt. Whitney in the California Sierra
(14,502 feet).

[Illustration: Steam Caves in one of the craters. The residual heat of
the extinct volcano causes steam and gases to escape from vents in the
rims of the two small craters. Alpinists often spend a night in the
caves thus formed in the snow.]

{p.089}
[Illustration: North Peak, named "Liberty Cap" because of its
resemblance to the Bonnet Rouge of the French Revolutionists.
Elevation, about 14,000 feet. View taken from the side of Crater Peak.
Distance, nearly