Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-01-13
ciety Of New York in lecture, was printed
as their bulletin No. of 1S16-77.

ciety of New York in a lecture. was printed
as their bulletin No. of 1S76-T.
An Epidemic of Climbers.
With the completion of the Northern Pa
cific railroad interest in all this sound coun-
try grew, and an epidemic of mountain
climbing began, and has continued. 1t is a
| short and select list of successful climbers,
uncounted parties having failed. The roll
reads:
August. 1888: George b. Bayley. James
Longmire, p B. Van Trump.
August, 1884: Warner Tober and two COM
| panions
August 1885, John Muir E. s. Ingraham.
n. o. Booth, Chas. v. Piper. D. w. Bass A.
c. Warner.
August 1889: E. S. Ingraham. E. C. Smith,
Grant Vaughn, DIR. Lessey, Roger Green,
Fl. E. Kelsey, Van Smith.
August, 1889: Mr.. Gore of Oregon. Alpine
| Club. ]. Nichol.
July, 1890: oscar Brown, two companions.
August TO- 1890: E. c. Smith, w. Q. Ans
den, X. K. Parish l.. Longnire, Miss Fay
Fuller.
August 10. 1890: s C. Hitchcock. A. F.
Knight F. s. Watson, w. Hitchcock.
Van Trump
Another party reached the summit in
1872, Messrs. Taggart, Lowe, Reilly and
Jones, and carried away as souvenir the
lead plate on which the climbers of so
| many seasons had cut their names The
Offenders were followed and the plate re-
stored to the crater caves by the three
climbers who assembled In 1893. OF these
climbers, Mr.. Ingraham made three I'M
successful attempts before his two tri-
umphal visits to the top. Rev. E. C. Smith
mas assembled twice, James Longmire twice.
r y. Van Trump twice and Mr.. George
Bayley twice. The latter and Prof. John
Muir experienced Alpine and Sierra climb
ers. pronounce Rainier the most difficult
ascent they know All but two parties
reached the summit from the south side
by the Gibraltar trail, leading between the
Nisqually and Cowlitz glaciers to the head
OF the latter. and thence straight up to the
14,4i4 feet level.
The Only Settlement.
The only settlement or habitation within
the reserve or on the mountain itself is
Longmires, group of rough shanties sur
rounding some hot soda springs. The land
was pre-empted as a mineral claim, and
the place is occupied for two months each
summer, during which time its simple ac-
commodations may be awaited of by camp
ers or climbers. Although only sixty miles
from Tacoma, it is a two days stage and
wagon journey to reach Longmires, which
is 1900 feet above the sea. A steep bride
trail leads from this outpost to the Para
disc valley, one the matchless parks at the
meeting timber and snow line, one of 1.-The
lower Gardens of Eden" as John Muir
nature maintains the scale of wonders dis
played at the base OF the mountain. The
magnificent forests lose the tangle of BUSH
es, vines and underground as one ascends
become messy, then drier and more open,
and on the heights there appear such
blooming thickets and flower bed as no
eastern Imagination can picture.
Every one of these parks, great and small,
is a garden filed knee-deep with fresh
lovely flowers of every hue the most lux
uriant and the most eXtravagantly beauti-
full of all the Alpine gardens l ever beheld
in all my mountain top ''wauderiugs," said
John Muir. There grow thickets of spiraea
twenty feet high, of azaleas blooming with
prodgality not to be imagined, and dog
wood Towering in clouds Of huge White bios
sons Snow line and timber line interlace
at about 5000 feet elevation, and the botan-
list need only follow the melting snow banks
all summer long to wade knee deep almost
in beds OF bryanthus and cassiopea, the
western substitute for heather. Some of
high parks isolated stately conifers, taper
ing gracefully and symmetrically as sap
lings for two hundred feet and more hung
over with clouds OF pale green moss. Camp
ers and climbers have ruthlessly destroyed
many such trees, firing them for the pleas
ure OF seeing them wrapped in sheets of
flame, and burning like torches throughout
the night. One imaginative surveyor
brought word to Tacoma a few years ago
that he had found trees on the mountain
that were over five hundred feet high by in
strumental measurement The story finally
came down TO a group of trees three hun
dred and fifty feet high, growing in a deep
canon,and reaching naturally to an unusual