GLACIAL PHENOMENA IN NEVADA 



phenomena to cast a good light well back upon 

 the conditions of the ancient ice-sheet that 

 covered this interesting region, and upon the 

 system of distinct glaciers that loaded the 

 tops of the mountains and filled the canons 

 long after the ice-sheet had been broken up. 



The first glacial traces that I noticed in the 

 basin are on the Wassuck, Augusta, and To- 

 yabe ranges, consisting of ridges and canons, 

 whose trends, contours, and general sculpture 

 are hi great part specifically glacial, though 

 deeply blurred by subsequent denudation. 

 These discoveries were made during the sum- 

 mer of 1876-77. And again, on the 17th of 

 last August, while making the ascent of Mount 

 Jefferson, the dominating mountain of the 

 Toquima range, I discovered an exceedingly 

 interesting group of moraines, canons with V-- 

 shaped cross sections, wide neVe* amphitheatres, 

 moutonneed rocks, glacier meadows, and one 

 glacier lake, all as fresh and telling as if the 

 glaciers to which they belonged had scarcely 

 vanished. 



The best preserved and most regular of the 

 moraines are two laterals about two hundred 

 feet in height and two miles long, extending 

 from the foot of a magnificent canon valley 

 on the north side of the mountain and trend- 

 ing first in a northerly direction, then curving 



185 



