38 GLACIAL AND SURFACE GEOLOGY OF THE PACIFIC COAST. 



some interest is, that though I hunted for them, I found no glacial scratches, 

 nor any other evidence of the former existence of glaciers anywhere in this 

 portion of the mountains ; not even on the peak which has been mistaken 

 for Mount Whitney, and which is over 14,000 feet high ; nor on the top 

 and sides of another peak which I climbed in the western summit, four or five 

 miles northwest of Soda Springs, and which cannot be much less than 12,000 

 feet high ; nor in the caiion of Kern River which I followed, for four or five 

 miles, — nor anywhere I went did I find any traces of glaciers. This is cer- 

 tainly somewhat remarkable, when we consider the fact that the mountains 

 only twenty miles to the north are, according to all accounts, full of glacial 

 mnrkinu;s. It is true that much of the granite in the region where I trav- 

 elled is comparatively soft ; but this is by no means the case with all of it, 

 and much of it is as hard, and as well adapted to jire.serve such markings, as 

 any in the Sierra." 



It appears, therefore, while the very upper portion of the main branch of 

 Kern River was undoubtedly occupied in former times by ice, the glacier 

 extended only a short distance to the south ; and that, although originating 

 in the ver}- highest part of the range, it was far inferior in importance to 

 some of (he masses of ice occupying depressions in the range farther north. 

 The reason of this small development of the Kern River glacier is undoubtedly 

 chiefiy to be found in the fact, that the most westerly of the three parallel 

 ridges into which the Sierra is here divided almost entirely cuts off the px-e- 

 cipitation from the other two. On the west side of the main Kern is the 

 range of the Kaweah Peaks, which is but little inferior in altitude to the 

 main water-shed, or the portion of the range which divides the waters flowing 

 into Owen's Valley from those finding their way to the Kern River. These 

 two nearly parallel elevated ridges are about fifteen miles apart. We have 

 here, therefore, another excellent illustration of what has already been stated 

 to exist, in reference to the relations of the crest of the Sierra Nevada in 

 this region to the Inyo Mountain Range on the east ; from which latter the 

 precipitation is almost entirely cut off by the superior elevation of the closely 

 adjacent line of sunmiits on the west. Still another reason exists why no 

 long glacier found its way down the main branch of the Kern. The topo- 

 graphical features of the Sierra in the region lying between Owen's Lake and 

 the Kaweah River are not favorable to the development of a large glacial 

 system. The Kern runs in a narrow and extremely precipitous valley, whicli 

 does not open out at its head, so as to form a large gathering-ground for the 



