204 SURFACE GEOLOGY, 



and here I discovered many examples of embossed rocks. They are, as we might 

 expect, much less distinct than in many other places less exposed to decomposing 

 agencies, and I should probably have passed by them without recognition, had I not 

 previously examined many other more distinct examples. So far as Mt. Clinton has 

 been uncovered, it seems one huge boss more or less rounded. As we begin to ascend 

 Mt. Pleasant, the embossed rocks are quite distinct ; and here, too, are boulders most 

 evidently transported. Here, too, I discovered striae running N. 30° W., S. 30° E., 

 corresponding essentially with the general course of stride on the mountains of New 

 Hampshire and Massachusetts. * * Near the south foot of Mt. Franklin is another 

 example of the embossed rocks with boulders. * * Finally, at the south foot of Mt. 

 Washington, near a small pond called Lake of the Clouds, is a third example of the 

 Roches immtonnes. It is less distinct than at the other localities, as the rock here is 

 more broken up by frosl ; still it is impossible for a practised eye not to recognize 

 them. And it ought to be stated that here it is the north-west exposure of the rocks 

 that has been most powerfully acted upon, proving conclusively that the force was ex- 

 erted from that direction. * * Can there be any reasonable doubt that the rocks on 

 the summits of all these peaks were once abraded by the same agency, and that, were 

 they in place, they would still exhibit traces of it? 



Conclusions. In the first place, the same glacio-aqueous agency that has operated in 

 a south-easterly direction over the northern parts of the continent, at the lowest and at 

 intermediary levels, has acted in the same manner and in the same direction upon the 

 summits of the White Mountains. * * Hence, thirdly, we have no reason to sup- 

 pose that the White Mountains have ever been a centre from which boulders have been 

 dispersed ; and no evidence has been discovered on the sides of the mountain of the 

 former existence of glaciers. ****** 



But as no ice-marks were discovered on the highest summit, my father 

 and others could not affirm what they seemed to have believed, that the 

 glacier did move over the summit. Every geological text-book in the 

 land has followed the leading of the facts just stated; and it has seemed 

 an established dictum, that no ice marks could occur above about five 

 thousand feet. 



In 1870 I traversed Mt. Washington, following the usual paths, and 

 discovered small transported stones of a nature foreign to the moun- 

 tain, at an altitude of 5,800 feet. The locality was at the then upper 

 tank of the railway. Not much search was made, as it seemed prepos- 

 terous to question the conclusions of my predecessors, though my note- 

 book stated that the ledges above these pebbles exhibit the usual appear- 

 ance of embossment produced by glacial agency, the force having come 

 from a north-westerly direction, but no stria: were seen upon them. In 



