Transcriber's note: Obvious printer's errors have been corrected,all other inconsistencies are as in the original. Author's spellinghas been maintained.
THE MOUNTAIN
THAT WAS "GOD"
BEING A LITTLE BOOK ABOUT THE GREAT
PEAK WHICH THE INDIANS NAMED "TACOMA"
BUT WHICH IS OFFICIALLY CALLED "RAINIER"
By JOHN H. WILLIAMS
O, rarest miracle of mountain heights,
Thou hast the sky for thy imperial dome,
And dwell'st among the stars all days and nights,
In the far heavens familiarly at home.
—William Hillis Wynn: "Mt. Tacoma; an Apotheosis."
Second Edition revised and greatly enlarged, with 190 illustrations, including eight colored halftones.
TACOMA: JOHN H. WILLIAMS
NEW YORK: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS: LONDON
1911
Great Crevasses in the upper part of Cowlitz Glacier.
Copyright, 1905, By Kiser Photo Co.
Copyright, 1910, 1911, by John H. Williams.
On the summit of Eagle Rock in winter.
Boys looking over an 800-foot precipice.
FOREWORD.
Every summer there is demand for illustrated literature describing themountain variously called "Rainier" or "Tacoma." Hitherto, we have hadonly small collections of pictures, without text, and confined to thefamiliar south and southwest sides.
The little book which I now offer aims to show the grandest and mostaccessible of our extinct volcanoes from all points of view. Like theglacial rivers, its text will be found a narrow stream flowing swiftlyamidst great mountain scenery. Its abundant illustrations cover notonly the giants' fairyland south of the peak, but also the equallystupendous scenes that await the adventurer who penetrates the hardertrails and climbs the greater glaciers of the north and east slopes.* * * *
The title adopted for the book has reference, of course, to the Indiannature worship, of which something is said in the opening chapter.Both the title and a small part of the matter are reprinted from anarticle which I contributed last year to the New York Evening Post.Attention is called to the tangle in the names of glaciers and theneed of a definitive nomenclature. As to the name of the Mountainitself, that famous bone of contention between two cities, I greatlyprefer "Tacoma," one of the several authentic forms of the Indian nameused by different tribes; but I believe that "Tahoma," proposed by theRotary Club of Seattle, would be a justifiable compromise, and satisfynearly everybody. Its adoption would free our national map from onemore of its meaningless names—the name, in this case, of anundistinguished foreign naval officer whose only connection with ourhistory is the fact that he fought against us during the AmericanR