Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1920-09-14

homa and the Kautz glaciers. But many or great
size and impressiveness are born of the SHOWS
in rock pockets or cirques, icescuiptured ooWis
of great dimensions and ever-increasing depth'
from which they merge into the gstenlng armor
of the huge volcano. The most notable of these
are the Cowltz the Paradise, the Fryingpan, the
Carbon, the Russell, the North and South Mowich,
the Puyallup, and the Pyramid glaciers
Twenty-eight glaciers, great and small. ciothe
Rainier-rivers of ice, with many of the charac-
terstics of rivers of water roaring at times over
precpices like waterfalls, ripping and tumbng
down rocky slopes-vertable NOISY cascades ris-
ing smoothly up on hidden rocks to foam, brook
like over its lower edges.
Every winter the moisture-laden winds from the
Pacific suddenly cooled against it's summit deposit
upon its top and sides enormous SHOWS. These.
settling in the crater which was left after the
great explosion in some prehistoric age carried
away perhaps 1000 feet of the volcanoes former
height, press with overwhelming weight down the
mountains slopng sides
Thus are born the glaciers. for the snow under
its own pressure quickly hardens into ice. Through
IA valleys seIf-carved i'll the solid rock flow these
rivers of ice, turning as rivers of water turn,
to avoid the harder rock strata, roaring over
precipices like concealed waterfalls, now ripping.
like wafer currents, over rough bottoms, pushing,
pouring relentlessly on until they reach those
parts of their courses where warmer air turns
In glowing contrast to this marvellous spectacle
of ice are the gardens of wild flowers surrounding
the glaciers These tlowery spots are called parks.
One will find on the accompanying map Spray
Park. st. Andrews Park, Indian Henrys Hunting
Ground, Paradise, Summer Land; and there are
many others.
"Above the forests" writes John Muir "there
is of the loveest flowers, fifty miles in cir
cult and nearly two miles wide, closely planted
nd IN
make open space between woods so dense and
ice so deep were economizing the precious ground
and trying to see how many of her darlings she
can get together in one mountain wreath--dasies,
anemones coumbine erythroniums, larkspurs, etc,
among which we wade knee deep and waist deep,
the bright corOllas in myrads touching petal to
petal. Altogether this is the richest suba pine
garden i have found. a perfect flower elysiurl."
The lower attitudes of the park are densely tim
bered with fir, cedar, hemIock maple alder cot
tonwood and spruce. The forested areas extend
ing to an altitude of about $500 feet, gradually
decrease in density of growth, after an altitude of
1000 feet is reached, and the high, broad pIateaus
between the glacial canyons present Incompatible
scenes of diversified beauties.
large part of the area above the 45OO-foot
contour consists of open, grassy parks rocky and
barren submits. snow fields, and glaciers. Tracts
of dense subalpine forest occur in sheltered loca-
tonS, but they are nowhere very extensive and
their continuity is broken by open swamp glades
and meadows and small bodies of standing wa
ter The steep upper slopes of the spurs d.
vuiging from the main ridges frequently COW
cred with Stunted, scraggy growth of low trees
firmly rooted in the crevices between the rocks
The most beautiful of the alpine trees are about
the mountain parks Growing in scattered groves
and standing in groups or singly in the open
grassland and on the margins of the lakes they
produce a peculiarly pleasing landscape effect
which agreeably relieves the traveller from the
extended outlook to the snow fields of the noun
tain and broken ridges about it. At the lower
levels of the subalpine forest the average height
of the largest trees is from so to 60 feet The
size diminishes rapidly as the elevation increases
The trees are dwarfed by the cold and their
trunks are bent and twisted by the wind Small
patches of low. weather-beaten. and stunted noun
tain hemlock. alpine fir. and whie-bar': pine occur
up to 1000 feet. The trunks are quite PROSTATE
and the crowns are iattened mats of branches
lying close TO the ground The extreme limit Of
tree growth on Mount Rainier is about 1000 feet.
There is no distinct timber line.