32 THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFOKNIA 



dreds of tons in weight, are left stranded here and 

 there out in the middle of the channel. Here, also, 

 I observed a series of small terminal moraines 

 ranged along the south wall of the amphitheater, 

 corresponding in size and form with the shadows 

 cast by the highest portions. The meaning of this 

 correspondence between moraines and shadows was 

 afterward made plain. Tracing the stream back to 

 the last of its chain of lakelets, I noticed a deposit 

 of fine gray mud on the bottom except where the 

 force of the entering current had prevented its set 

 tling. It looked like the mud worn from a grind 

 stone, and I at once suspected its glacial origin, for 

 the stream that was carrying it came gurgling out 

 of the base of a raw moraine that seemed in process 

 of formation. Not a plant or weather-stain was 

 visible on its rough, unsettled surface. It is from 

 60 to over 100 feet high, and plunges forward at 

 an angle of 38. Cautiously picking my way, I 

 gained the top of the moraine and was delighted to 

 see a small but well characterized glacier swooping 

 down from the gloomy precipices of Black Moun 

 tain in a finely graduated curve to the moraine on 

 which I stood. The" compact ice appeared on all 

 the lower portions of the glacier, though gray with 

 dirt and stones embedded in it. Farther up the ice 

 disappeared beneath coarse granulated snow. The 

 surface of the glacier was further characterized by 

 dirt bands and the outcropping edges of the blue 

 veins, showing the laminated structure of the ice. 

 The uppermost crevasse, or " bergschrund," where 

 the neve was attached to the mountain, was from 

 12 to 14 feet wide, and was bridged in a few places 



