232 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



lateral, frontal, and median moraines. A careful examination of 

 these shows beyond a doubt that they came from the White 

 Mountains, and not from the northern regions, since they overlie 

 the typical drift which they have only here and there removed or 

 modified. A short description of the facts will leave no doubt 

 upon this point. 



" The finest lateral moraines in these regions may be seen along 

 the hill-sides flanking the bed of. the south branch of the Amonoo- 

 suc, north of the village of Franconia. The best median mo- 

 raines are to the east of Picket Hill and Round Hill. These latter 

 moraines were formed by the confluence of the glaciers which 

 occupied the depression between Haystack and Mt. Lafayette, 

 and that which descended from the northern face of Lafayette 

 itself. These longitudinal moraines arc particularly interesting 

 as connecting the erratic boulders on the north side of the Fran- 

 conia range with that mountain mass, and showing that they are 

 not northern boulders transported southwards, but boulders from 

 a southern range transported northwards. But by far the most 

 significant facts showing the great extent of the local glaciers of 

 the White Mountain range, as well as the most accessible and 

 easily recognized, even by travellers not very familiar with glacial 

 phenomena, are the terminal moraines to the north of Bethlehem 

 village, between it and the northern bend of the Amonoosuc 

 River. The lane starting from Bethlehem Street, following the 

 cemetery for a short distance, and hence trending northwards, 

 cuts 1C terminal moraines in a tract of about 2 miles. Some of 

 these moraines are as distinct as any I know in Switzerland. 

 They show unmistakably by their form that they were produced 

 by the pressure of a glacier moving from south northwards. 

 This is indicated by their abrupt southward slope, facing, that is, 

 toward the Franconia range, while their northern face has a much 

 gentler descent. The steeper slope of a moraine is always that 

 resting against the glacier, while the outer side is comparatively 

 little inclined. The form of these moraines, therefore, as well as 

 their position, shows that they have come down from the Franconia 

 Mountains. 1 ' 



After describing in detail the various local phenomena of glacial 

 action in the various places in which they occur, he proceeds : 



"All these moraines and traces of local glaciers overlie the typ- 

 ical or northern drift so-called, wherever the latter has not been 

 entirely swept away by the local glaciers themselves; thus show- 

 ing that the great ice-sheet is anterior to the local glaciers, and 

 not formed by a spreading of smaller pre-existing glaciers. At 

 least, wherever I have recognized traces of circumscribed glaciers 

 in regions where they no longer exist, it has always appeared to 

 me that the minor areas covered by ice were remnants of a 

 -\vaning sheet of greater extent. If the glacial period set in by 

 the enlargement of limited glaciers already formed and grad- 

 ually spreading more and more widely, as Lyell and the geolo- 

 gists of his school suppose, the facts which would justify such 

 a view arc still to be made known. I have not seen a trace 

 of them anywhere. On the contrary, throughout the ranges 



