Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-01-13

latter name from charts and local usage
entirely. vancouver never made any at
tempt 10 learn the native names for the
places he surveyed, bestowing geographic
immortality on all his friends and with
great dlscernment on the staff of the
admiralty office and all the noble lords
VINO had aided and could aid him in am
way. The native name, the gurgling sy
tables by which the gutteral- tongued soun
tribes knew the great mountain, was Ia
ho-mah with the Nisquallys Tah-ko-ba
with the Puyallups and Tah-ko-bet with
the Duwamish, all meaning the snowy or
white mountain, the great one as COM
pared TO the other peaks and ranges in
sight. In these latter days a dozen fanci-
full meanings have been given the native
words, and the copper-colored, fish-eating
canoe-paddling Siwashes of past genera
tons are made out poets of the richest
fancy by the proof of such imagery In
1870 the board of geographic names de-
cided that the chart name of Mt. Rainier
must remain unchanged. The Indians be-
heved the heights to be the abode of
great spirit, of evil spirits, of ghosts OF
whistling demons, and only the most ad-
venturous hunters went near it. Theodore
winthrop relates well-built legend that
unites the best of Rip Van Wrinkle and of
Rider Haggard'S tales. Even the modern
reservation Indian has little Unborn dread
II the heights. balks. deserts and misleads
purposely, 50 that he cannot be relied upon
by mountain climbers. No tribes had per-
manent villages on any part of the noun
tain, although the sound Indians visited the
CANVASS and berry prairies at it's base every
summer. The plains Indians crossed TO
tide water by pass well to north of it, But
during the Indian war of 1853 the retreat
ing Indians set fire to a tract near the
Nisqually river to prevent pursuit and
for miles the scrub and underground tell
of that destruction today, reforestation not
being accomplished in every forty years.
The First Attempt to Ascend
The first attempt to explore the mystic
rious mountain and ascend the peak was
made in 1893 by DR.. William Fraser Tolmie
the young Scotch surgeon at the H. B. c.
Fort Nisqually. After a long absence he
returned unsuccessful. having wandered in
the forest on the west and north slopes
He had assembled one small peak camped
beside Crater Lake and looked down from
Eagle Cliff into the profound gorge where
the Puyallup flows and across to the Willis
glacier Sloping to the great summit-the
first to take in that famous landscape, said
TO be the most sublime mountain view on
me continent, SURPRISING all in the high
Slerras. Fifty years later while Mr.. Bailey
Willis was surveying the coal fields on that
side of the mountain he found traces of
Dr. Tolmies camp and identified his route.
IN ls3' Lieut.. y. V. kautz with James
LonSnlre and two companions from Fort
Stellacoom. assembled to South Peak, on the
summit mass, after hardships and expe-
fiences that deferred all attempts for thir-
teen years.
In August, 1870 Mr. Hazard Stevens. son
OF the famous first governor of Washing
ton +. l.. Van Trump and Edmund T.
Coleman. an English artist and Alpine
1luo member, attempted the peak Van
trump and Stevens reaching the true sum
nit. the Dome or Crater Peakand spending
the night in the ice caves of the crater
glistening green grottoes carved out bv the
Jets OF steam issuing from crevices in the
rocks. Mr.. stevens most interesting ac-
count of this ascent may be found in the
Atlantic Monthly of November, 1876
In October, 1870. Mr.. y. D. Wilson and
Mr. . Em1nons OF this city and of the
geological survey made the ascent ana
were the first scientists to view and report
the glaciers. Mr.. Emmons' account as
given to the American Geographical So