able high round
mountain, covered with snow, apparently at the southern extremity of
the distant snowy range." A few days later he again mentions "the
round snowy mountain," "which, after my friend Rear-Admiral Rainier, I
distinguished by the name of Mount Rainier." Nearly all of Captain
Vancouver's friends were thus distinguished, at the cost of the Indian
names, to which doubtless he gave no thought. Sonorous "Kulshan" and
unique "Whulge" were lost, in order that we might celebrate "Mr.
Baker" and "Mr. Puget," junior officers of Vancouver's expedition.

[Illustration: Passing a big crevasse on Interglacier. Sour-Dough
Mountains on the right, with Grand Park beyond: St. Elmo Pass in
center, Snipe Lake and Glacier Basin in depression.]

[Illustration {p.099}: View north from Mt. Ruth (part of the Wedge), with
Interglacier in foreground, the Snipe Lake country below, Sour-Dough
Mountains on right, Grand Park in middle distance, and Mt. Baker, with
the summits of the Selkirks, far away in Canada, on the horizon.]

{p.100}
[Illustration: Camp on St. Elmo Pass, north side of the Wedge, between
Winthrop Glacier and Interglacier. Elevation, 9,000 feet. Winthrop
Glacier and the fork of White River which it feeds are seen in
distance below. The man is Maj. E. S. Ingraham, a veteran explorer of
the Mountain, after whom Ingraham Glacier is named.]

[Illustration: East face of the Mountain, from south side of the
Wedge, showing route to the summit over White Glacier.]

Happily, the fine Indian name "Tacoma" was not offered up a sacrifice
to such obscurity. Forgotten as he is now, Peter Rainier was, in his
time, something of a figure. After some ransacking of libraries, I
have found a page that gives us a glimpse of a certain hard-fought
though unequal combat, in the year 1778, between an American privateer
and two British ships. It is of interest in connection with "Mount
Rainier," the name recognized by the Geographic Board at Washington in
1889 as official.

On the 8th of July, the 14-gun ship Ostrich, Commander Peter
Rainier, on the Jamaica station, in company with the 10-gun armed
brig Lowestoffe's Prize, chased a large brig. After a long run,
the Ostrich brought the brig, which was the American privateer
Polly, to action, and, after an engagement of three hours'
duration (by which time the Lowestoffe's Prize had arrived up and
{p.101} taken part in the contest), compelled her to surre