Omaha daily bee., 1889-07-06
A CAMP IN PARADISE.
Beautiful Sights Witnessed by a Party
Exploring Mount Tacoma.

Exploring Mount Tacoma.
Allen G. Mason, the leading business
man Of Tacoma, with two other well
known merchants, recently ascended
Mount Tacoma. Upon their return Mr..
Mason was asked what he had seen.
"Everything that is beautiful, grand
and sublime in nature" said he. Be
tween Tacoma and the mountain, fifty
five miles distant, miles of as fine cedar
and fur as grow anywhere in the terri
tory. The timber will run from $4,000
to $4,000 feet to tho acre. Some of the
trees are rs much as twelve feet in
diamete and as straight as it is possi-
BILE for vegetation to grow.
"The underbrush.is primeval in its
luxuriance. We stood alongside tho
trees on horses and you could see the
trunks of them on each side of the
horse. In other places the underbrush
is so thick rs to hide the horses, and all
that could be seen of the rider would be
his head.
paradise Valley is beautiful almost
beyond description. 1t has been most
appropriately named.
There you see the most beautiful
varieties of flowers blooming in unlim-
tied profusion: and such flowers! They
are infinitely more beautiful than those
seen in the other valleys, which are u
sort of species,
THE trees In the valley are fir, cedar
spruce and oak, and other hardy vari-
cites above the mountain continue to
rise up. There are waterfalls aud
brooks and grand old logs which have
been lying there for centuries, | sup
pose, from whose sides other trees, and,
of course, smaller trees, are growing.
Roots of some OF them grow down in
each side of tho log and seem to en-
race it.
''We camped in charming spot.
We sat down where we could toss the
matches from our cigar on one side in
to a bank of pure white snow, on the
other into patch Of the most gorgeous
ly colored flowers.
'We called that Paradise Camp. 1t
Is sometimes called the Camp in the
Clouds. When we reached that heigh
our clothes became brrdensome and we
stripped off everything except our pants,
shirts. hats and shoes. We discarded
our guns before that.
1.-The snow is glittering, glistening
white, and very hard on the eyes. Be-
fore we began to climb into the snow
belt we blackened our faces with cork
and put on black caps, which we pulled
down over our eyes. Had we not done
this we would have been blinded by the
brightness of the sun on the snow, and
probably ruined our sight"
did you get to the summit?"
mo. Between the Cowlitz and Mes
qually glaciers, which feed these two
rivers, is perpendicular wall OF rock.
1t is an impossible barrier. 1t goes
straight up. 1t is impossib BILE to scale 1T.
"Around on the outer side, between
the glaciers is narrow path, through
which it is possible to make the ascent,
but man takes his life in his own
hands when he makes the attempt.
Above is a mass of towering, crumbling
rock.
1T is awful to look at that point and
think what might happen, but you CAN
not help but admire the grandeur Of
the sight. The only way to make that
ascent with anything like safety is for
some sure-footed climber to go ahead
and make a rope fast, then one could
pull himself up along the side of the
rock. We went through to point
from which steam could be seen issuing
from the top"
'How high did you ascend?"
ITO a height of 13,05O feet. That is
what the aneroid registered. The at
mosphere at that height was so thin
that we painted for breath.
THE altitude at which we shed our
surplus clothing was 10000 feet. l took
quite number of photographs of cones
in Paradise Valley and UP the mountain.
Mount Tacoma is, think, the only
mountain in this country which has five
glaciers.
From those glaciers water rushes
forever. | have taken pictures OF some
of the waterfalls. We did not see Ia
coma and commencement bay or Puget
sound, because we went up on the other
side of the mountain. but we saw the
Cascade range stretching away to the
south west as far rs the eye could reach,
and the Columbia river and Olympian
range as it runs along the coast. We
reached within a quarter OF mile OF
the top by actual measurement"