The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893-12-09

ps1a. which 10 literal copy OF portion o.
an article published in the New York San
November 10 aid written by Fred o.
PIummer. Of Tacoma The second head
line over tho article In the Oregossas,
Stories Of the Early Years. ETC.. !" may %
intended, perhaps. 70 indicate the degree
Of credenee which that paper thinks
should be given to t.: for they are stories"
familiar TO the older residents Of Oregon
and Washington. but nos taken seriously
by people of intelligence in these states at
the present. time. A rehesrsed by Mr..
Plummsr in the New York Sus they are
rather the eruptions Of an ambitions bur
superficial writer Who has lately added 70
his large and we'll kept assortment oil
volcanoes and earthquakes . remarkable
high tide or two, IN respect to which Prof.
Barnard made some very pointed remarks
In the PosT-IyTELLfsEscKs showing how he
thought such sensational pretenders. who
seek TO alarm the country. should be dealt
with by conservative citizen The people
who know him in Tacoma, especially those
who have been connected with the press,
esteem Mr.. Piummer rather - hnmorist,
and have the same kindly and considersts
feeling for him that was expressed by the
notice posted In IN Arizona church:
Don't shoot the organist: he's doing the
best he can" But the way his lurid
article in the New York sun hss started
on its rounds through the press. credited
TO the Salem Ssatesman by the Oresonian.
and liable TO be credited to the Oregoniaa
next and so on, until il may have the APP
parent authorization Of . hundred repu-
table newspapers, shows that Prof.
Barnard was more nearly right in treat
ing him with peremptory seriousness.
Therefore / wish to say, ~ / think
some ought, In the spirit of the old Eng
iish wit who said "One ought always to
speak respectfully of the equator" that
there 10 no evidence whatever which will
bear examination that any of the mount
ain peaks in Oregon and Washington have
been active volcanoes within recent times
within hundreds or perhaps thousands
Of years. No reliance can be placed
upon Indian traditions. except as they
agree with the evident facts. and the
stories collated by Mr. Plummer, some Of
which have found their way from the col
umns OF local newspapers into such books
as .'Gray's History" and DIR. Elijah
Whites "Ten Years in Oregon" are no
more authentic. Nothing is much more
unreliable than the observations of the
average bucolic mind, unless IL be recol-
Iections of what il has seen or heard. Il
has been . common saying since this
country was first settled by white
people, when the south wind, blow
ing mp the mountain sides. forms a
cloud that streams away TO the
north, that Mount Hood or Rainier
or st. Helens lis smoking" Some Of
these appearances Of 1.-THE mountain smok-
ing" have been very Misunderstanding
almost in their resemblance to reality. and
easy to be turned by the reporters pencil,
printers ink and the lapse of time into
good volcano stories. One Of the most re-
markable Of these Is preserved in DIR. Elijah
Whites famous report TO the Indian
bureau in 1872. DR.. White. . discharged
physician OF the Oregon Methodist mis-
sion. went back East and obtained ap-
pointment - sub-Indian agent for tho
tribes west Of the Rocky mountains in
January, 1872, and returning reached Van
couver about the Goth of September, and
set about framing a code of laws for the
Nez Perces Indians, " hich was scarcely less
wonderful than his description of an
eruption of St. Helens." He writes:
mount st. Heiens, one of the snow
capped volcanic mountains. some 5000
feet above the sea and eighty miles north
of Vancouver. broke on: upon the 10Th Of
November, presenting a scene the most
awful and sublime imaginable, scattering
smoke and ashes several hundred miles
distant, and In the meantime immense
quantities of melted lava were rolling
down its sides and inundating the plains
below"
From such sources Mr.. Plummer has
compiled table of twenty-five eruptions
from st. Helens, Hood. Rainier and
Baker, as occurring between the years 1881
and 1891. and he also says in his article in
the Sun that ''within $50 miles of Tacoma
there are no less than twenty-three of
these large volcanoes and hundreds of
smaller vents" And he adds that st.
Hclens will undoubtedly "again be
active" that "alI history and tradition
agree that she keeps her lamp burning and
will again prove her watchfulness; that
sit will be q great event for US" when IL
occurs, implying that he expects an erup-
ton in his lifetime and ours. He is con-
siderate enough to the country, however,
to inform the readers of the Sun that not
outstanding his array of volcanoes the
horizon of Puget sound is not formed by
smoking cones.
The only evidence which may now be
respectfully mistaken for volcanic activity
in this region-W ashington and Oregon
Is the steam that is found to emanate
from an old crater in the summit of
Rainier. But moments reflection upon
the facts reported by those who have WIS.,
tied the summit shows that the character
of this steam is evidence rather that vol
canic activity has entirely ceased. No
report has ever been made. SO far as
know. that il carries any of the offensive
or poisonous vapors or gases that are assoc
etatcd with volcanic emanauons. A Young
lady OF Tacoma and Hazard Stevens and
other visitors have slept in its warmth
through the night, but no one has reported
the existence OF offensive odors or expert
enced any deieterious effects from inhai-
ing 1t. IL 1t were the breath, so to speak.
of even an expiring volcano there could
almost surely be detected some of the Of
fensive or poisonous gases that are found
in the old volcanic districts of Europe.
IL is well known by all who have given
attention to the subject that the sub
teranean high temperature of such
mountain as Rainier may not be ex.
hausted for many thousand years after
volcanic activity has entirely ceased.
such lingering temperature I'm this
extinct volcano sufficiently accounts for
the laudabie steam arising from q cleft in
the rocks; and, with this explanation.
nothing is left in the nature Of evidence
that the great mountains of the Cascade
or Olympic range have not long since
passed the exuberaner OF youth and settled
e in h. -e.t. -