two miles.]

The definitive map of the National Park which was begun last summer by
the Geological Survey, with Mr. Francois E. Matthes in charge, will
establish the elevations of all important landmarks in the Park. Among
these will be the Mountain itself. Whether this will add much, if
anything, to the current figure of the Dictionary is uncertain. In any
case, the result will not lessen the pride of the Northwest in its
great peak. A few feet of height signify nothing. No California
mountain masked behind the Sierra can vie in majesty with this lonely
pile that rises in stately grandeur from the shores of Puget Sound.

[Illustration {p.090}: Goat Peaks, glacier summits in the Cascades,
southeast of the Mountain. Elevation, about 8,000 feet, A branch of
the Cowlitz is seen flowing down from the glaciers above.]

[Illustration {p.091}: Copyright 1907, By W. P. Romans. Spray Park,
from Fay Peak, showing the beautiful region between the Carbon and
North Mowich Glaciers.]

{p.093}
[Illustration: Ice-bound Lake in Cowlitz Park, with top of
Little Tahoma in distance.]

[Illustration: Crevasses in Cowlitz Glacier, with waterfall dropping
from Cowlitz Park, over basaltic cliffs.]

The wide area which the Mountain thrusts far up into the sky is a
highly efficient condenser of moisture. Near to the Pacific as it is,
its broad summit and upper slopes collect several hundred feet of snow
each year from the warm Chinooks blowing in from the west. On all
sides this vast mass presses down, hardened into solid granular neve,
to feed the twelve primary glaciers. Starting eastward from Paradise
Valley, these principal ice-streams are: Cowlitz and Ingraham
glaciers; White or White River glacier, largest of all; Winthrop
glacier, named in honor of Theodore Winthrop, in whose romance of
travel, "The Canoe and the Saddle," the ancient Indian name "Tacoma"
was first printed; Carbon, North and South Mowich, Puyallup, North and
South Tahoma, Kautz and Nisqually glaciers. The most important
secondary glaciers, or "interglaciers," rising within the great rock
wedges which I have described, are called Interglacier, Frying-Pan,
{p.094} Stevens, Paradise and Van Trump. All of these are of the true
Alpine type; that is, they are moving rivers of ice, as distinguished
from "continental glaciers," the ice caps which cover vast regions in
the Arctic and Antarctic.

[Illustration: Crossing a precipitous slope on White Glacier. Little
Tahoma