Legends of the Pacific Northwest_"; to Mr. Wallace Rice, literary
executor of the late Francis Brooks, for leave to use Mr. Brooks's
fine poem on the Mountain; to the librarians at the Public Library,
the John Crerar Library and the Newberry Library in Chicago, and to
many others who have aided me in obtaining photographs or data for
this edition.

Lovers of the mountains, in all parts of our country, will learn with
regret that Congress, remains apparently indifferent to the
conservation of the Rainier National Park and its complete opening to
the public. At the last session, a small appropriation was asked for
much-needed trails through the forests and to the high interglacial
plateaus, now inaccessible save to the toughest mountaineer; it being
the plan of the government engineers to build such trails on grades
that would permit their ultimate widening into permanent roads. Even
this was denied. The Idaho catastrophe last year again proved the
necessity of trails to the protection of great forests. With the
loggers pushing their operations closer to the Park, its danger calls
for prompt action. Further, American tourists, it is said, annually
spend $200,000,000 abroad, largely to view scenery surpassed in their
own country. But Congress refuses the $50,000 asked, even refuses
$25,000, toward making the grandest of our National Parks safe from
forest fires and accessible to students and lovers of nature!

May 3, 1911.

[Illustration: Winthrop Glacier and St. Elmo Pass, with Ruth Mountain
(the Wedge) on right and Sour-Dough Mountains on left.]

[Illustration: White Glacier and Little Tahoma, with eastern end of
the Tatoosh Range in distance.]

{p.009} CONTENTS.

Page.

The Mountain Speaks. Poem Edna Dean Proctor 15

I. Mount "Big Snow" and Indian
Tradition 17

II. The National Park, its Roads
and its Needs 43

III. The Story of the Mountain 77

IV. The Climbers 113

V. The Flora of the Mountain
Slopes Prof. J. B. Flett 129

Notes 139

ILLUSTRATIONS.

The * indicates engravings made from copyrighted photographs. See
notice under