New Britain herald., 1915-08-17
MOUNT RAINIER
AN ICY OCTOPUS
More Than Twenty Giant Glaciers
Reach Frosty Arms Downward
Department of the Interior)

Department of the Interior)
Washington, Aug. ia frozen oc-
topus of enormous bulk whose glitter
ing armored body rises three miles in
10 the sky, with twenty or more huge
Wrlnkled arms reaching down among
thousands of acres of the most gor-
seous and luxuriant wild flowers, to
squirt, from each finger tip, river of
Ice water into the valley below!
Surely quotation from the Arabian
Nights! Or a ghost tale to brighten
children on Halloween!
But no, however figurative, this is
true statement of an actual fact
There really exists such an ice-formed
octopus in these United States. 1t is
a Justifiable description of the most
interesting mountain in Uncle Sans
dominions, and perhaps in the world.
Mount Rainier is in the state of
Washington, fifty-six miles southwest
of Tacoma. It is one of that celebrat-
ed range of volcanoes which were sup
posed to be extinct until, within the
year, Lassen Peak broke forth again.
Rainier, though supporting one of the
most remarkable single-peak glacial
systems in the world, emits steam
from certain crevices, evidence of con-
tlnued internal neat.
Seen from Tacoma or Seattle, the
vast mountain appears to rise directly
from sea level so insignificant seem
the ridges about its base. Yet these
ridges Themselves are of no mean
heigh They rise 5000 to 1000 feet
above the valleys that cut through
them, and their crests average 5000
feet in altitude. Thus at the south
west entrance to the Mount Rainier
National Park, which Congress Gre
ated to protect this natural marvel
from private encroachment, the ele-
walton above sea level is 1000 feet,
while Goat Mountain, close by, rises
to an altitude of 6,O45 feet
A Veritable Colossus.
But SO colossal axe the proportions
of the great volcano that they dwarf
even mountains of this size and give
them the appearance of mere foot
hills. In height Rainier is second in
the United States only to Mount Whit
ney
Mount Rainier stands, in round
numbers, 10000 feet high above it's
immediate base and covers 100 square
miles of territory. In shape it is not
a simple cone tapering to a slender
pointed summit like Fujiyama, the
great volcano of Japan. It is rather
a broadly truncated mass resembling
an enormous tree stump with spread
ing base and irregularly broken top.
It's life history has been a varied
one. Like all volcanoes, Rainier has
built up it's cone with the materials
elected by it's own eruptions-with
cinders and steam shredded particles
and Jumps of lava and with occa-
sonal flows of liquid lava that have
solidified into layers of hard basal
tic rock. At one time it attained an
tltitude of not less than 5000 feet,
if one may judge by the steep in
clination of the lava and cinder lay
ers visible in it's flanks. Then followed
a great explosion that destroyed the
top part of the mountain and re-
duced it's height by some 1000 feet.
The volcano was left beheaded, with
a capacious hollow crater surround
ed by a Jagged rim
Later on this great cavity, which
measured nearly three miles across
from south to north, was filled by
two small cinder cones. Successive
cruptions added to their height until
at last they formed together a low
rounded dome-the eminence that
now constitutes the mountains sum-
NIT, The higher portions of the old
crater rim rise to elevations within
few hundred feet of the summit
and especially when viewed from be-
low, stand out bodily as separte
peaks that mask and seem to over
shadow the central dome.
Hard to Establish Altitude.
The altitude of the main summit
has for many years been in doubt
Several figures have been announced
from time to time, no two of them
in agreement with each other; but all
of these, it is to be observed, were OBJ
tanned by more or less approximate
methods. In 1913 the United States
Geological Survey, in connection with
it topogra phic surveys of the Mount
Rainier National Park made a new
series of measurements by triangular
ton methods at close range. These give
the peak an elevation of IA, 408 feet. |