Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1920-09-10

of great dimensions and eVer-lncreaSlng uepul
from which they merge into the glistening armor
of the huge volcano. The most notable of these
are the Cowlitz, 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, clothe
Rainier-rivers of ice, with many of the eharac-
terstics of rivers of water, roaring at times over
precipces like waterfalls, ripping and tumbling
down rocky slopes-veritable 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 its 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 sloping sides.
Thus are born the glaciers for the snow under
its pressure quickly hardens into ice. Through
IA valleys sefcarved in the solid rock flow these
rivers of ice turning. rivers of water turn,
to avoid the harder rock strata, now roaring over
precipices like CONCEALED waterfalls, ripping
like water currents, over rough bottoms pushing
pouring relentlessly until they reach those
parts of their courses where warmer air turns
them into rivers of water.
In glowing contrast to this marvellous spectacle
of ice are the gardens of wild flowers surrounding
the glaciers These dowery spots are called parks.
On6 Will uQQ on Il0 accompanying map spray
Park, st. Andrews Park Indian Henry's Hunting
Ground, Paradise, Summer Land; and there are
many others.
"Above the forests" writes John Muir, "there
is zone of the loveliest flowers, fifty miles in cir
cult and nearly two miles wide, so closely planted
and luxurious that it seems as if nature, glad to
make an open space between woods so dense and
ice so deep, were economzing the precious ground
and trying to see how many of her darlngs she
can get together in one mountain wreath-daisies,
anemones, columbine, erythroniums larkspurs, ETC.,
among which wade knee deep and waist deep.
the bright corollas in myriads touching petal to
petal. Altogether this is the richest subalpine
garden have found, perfect flower elysium.'
The lower attitudes of the park are densely tim
bered with fir, cedar, hemlock, maple, alder, cot
tonwood and spruce The forested areas, extend
ing to altitude of about $500 feet, gradually
decrease in density of growth after an altitude of
1000 feet is reched, and the high. broad plateaus
between the glacial canyons present Incompatible
scenes of diversified beauties.
A large part of the area above the 45OO-foot
contour consists Of open grassy parks, rocky and
barren submits, fields and glaciers. Tracts
of dense Subapine forest occur in sheltered loca-
tions 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 df-
vulging from the main ridges are frequently COW
cred with a 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 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 80 to 60 feet. The
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 white-bar pine occur
up to 1000 feet. The trunks are quite PROSTATE
and the crowns are fattened mats of branches
lying close to the ground The extreme limit of
tree growth on Mount Rainier is about 1900 feet
There is no distinct timber line.