* * * heaven-sustaining bulwark, reared Between the East and West.
[Illustration { p.022}: Copyright, 1900, By A. H. Waite. North Peak, or Liberty Cap, and South Mowich Glacier in storm, seen from an altitude of 6,000 feet, on ridge between South Mowich and Puyallup Glaciers. The glacier, 2,000 feet below, is nearly half a mile wide. Note the tremendous wall of ice in which it ends.]
[Illustration: Copyright, 1900, By A. H. Waite. Basaltic Columns, part of the "Colonnade" on south side of South Mowich Glacier. These curious six-sided columns of volcanic rock are similar to those bordering the Cowlitz Glacier.]
[Illustration: Mountain Goat, an accidental snap-shot of the fleet and wary Mazama; godfather of the famous Portland mountain club.]
And when even that apparition had faded, and the Mountain appeared only as an uncertain bulk shadowed upon the night, then came the miracle. Gradually, the east, beyond the great hills, showed a faint silver glow. Silhouetted against this dim background, the profile of the peak grew definite. With no other warning, suddenly from its summit the full moon shot forth, huge, majestic and gracious, flooding the lower world with brightness. Clouds and mountain ranges alike shone with its glory. But the great peak loomed blacker and more sullen. Only, on its head, the wide crown of snow gleamed white under the cold rays of the moon.
[Illustration { p.024}: West Side of the summit, seen from Tahoma Fork of the Nisqually, on road to Longmire Springs. Note the whiteness of the glacial water. This stream is fed by the united Tahoma glaciers. See pp. 32 and 37.]
{ p.025} [Illustration: Iron and Copper Mountains (right) in Indian Henry's. The top of Pyramid Peak shows in the saddle beyond with Peak Success towering far above.]
No wonder that this mountain of changing moods, overtopping every other eminence in the Northwest, answered the idea of God to the simple, imaginative mind of the Indians who hunted in the forest on its slopes or fished in the waters of Whulge that ebbed and flowed at its base. Primitive peoples in every land have deified superlative manifestations of nature--the sun, the wind, great rivers, and waterfalls, the high mountains. By all the tribes within sight of its summit, this pre-eminent peak, variously called by them Tacoma (Tach-ho´ma), Tahoma or Tacob, as who should say "The Great Snow," was deemed a power to be feared and conciliated. Even when the missionaries taught them a better faith, they continued to hold the Mountain in superstitious reverence--an awe that still has power to silence their "civilized" and very unromantic descendants.