The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1921-08-18

known" says w. A. Langille. who
with his brother, II. ID. Langille, made
the first ascent of the north side of the
peak. Ever since we have been
climbing the mountain we have noticed
impressive evidences of extreme heat
far underneath the surface. | can con-
firm stories of sulphurous fumes. In
deed, most every one who has been to
the summit of the snow peak will no.
tice the odor of the fumes and see the
vapor rising from the old crater. Such
disturbances as that noted the first of
last week below Crater Rock are
nothing new in the experience of
mountaineers. They have been of fre-
quent occurrence, although not often
on the huge scale of that of the other
| day.
Prof. Salisbury, head Of the depart-
ment of geology at the University of
Chicago, was recently here touring the
valley. He declared that stories indi-
eating that Cascade mountains were
displaying activity from renewed heat
within their surface were unfounded.
Prof. Salisbury declared that constant
cooling process was in progress in all
of the mountains.
AN ApilONiiBs .tOllItiIifiR LIG SO~
called eruption. appeared in the Ore
gonian of last Thursday morning:
: What this force is, whether an erup-
tion within the mountain or hydraulic
pressure caused by accumulated snow
water in pocket, is not known. The
two guides who first arrived on the
scene declared the mud was warm
when they examined it. Wednesday
when l.. +. Pridemore and two mem
bers of the Mazama club went to the
scene they found the mud cold mass.
MIR. Pridemore, who manages the hotel
at Government Camp, within sight of
Crater Rock, declared he had his own
opinion as to the cause of the river of
nude, but declined to make IT, public.
He considered it a problem for scien-
fists to tackle.
The two Mazamas, on the other
hand. hold that the Outburst was moth
ing more than the result of water be-
ing impounded beneath the bottom of
the ice peak and the surface of the
mountain.
Testimony of all witnesses agree on
one point, and that is that some great
power was exerted which ripped open
the ice cap and showed shattered mass
es of ice around as though they were
so many paper-weights. The force,
exerted from beneath, rent the age
old ice into blocks rs feet across and |
five yards thick. When a vent had |
been made by showing the ice aside, |
the sand and mud flowed out and rolled |
down the side Of the mountain over the |
snow fields.
According to Boyd Williams, presi-
dent of the Mazamas, who inspected
the flow yesterday with T. X. Conway,
the stream of water. mud and volcanic
ash was due to melting snow and was
not an eruption. Mr.. Williams said
that while he had seen similar out
on Mount Hood, this was the
largest stream he had investigated
The theory Of Mr.. Williams is that
warm temperatures caused the snow to
melt the water formed in a pocket or
pit until the pressure became 80 great
that 1t broke through an ice cap Is feet
thick, causing the river of mud. The /
responsible for the melt
ing of snow was not from within the
mountain, in the opinion of Mr.. Will
liams.
No trace of steam or heat was no
ticed by the Mazama president, and
The snow along the edge of the flow
carried no indications of heat. Snow
was even found on some of the mud.
Whatever the origin. Mr.. Williams de-
,lared the flow was a most interesting
tight, and its extent and the pressure
)shind it were indicated by huge blocks
If ice Is feet square and Is feet thick,
)roken off at the point where the
tream of mud emerged from below.
rhe mud and water burst out about 900
eet from Castle CTags and flowed near
Rock.