6l6 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



growth is fearful to traverse. Ledges are common at the summit, with 

 obscure glacial markings. The strata are immensely contorted here, as 

 well as on the ridge running towards the Half-way house on the Glen 

 carriage-road, and, in fact, everywhere over these highest peaks. 



On coming back to the Notch above Fig. 83 (for we have made a 

 detour to Madison), a portion of Adams stands up very lawlessly upon 



Fig. 84. CLIFFS IN KING'S RAVINE. 



its west side, and exerts a strange fascination over the tourist. The 

 rock is bleak and bare, as is nearly every portion of these summits, 

 but gives the impression of softness. This feeling may be due to the 

 curvatures in the strata. Ruskin, in his Modern Painters, maintains 

 that one secret of Alpine grandeur consists in the existence in the nee- 

 dles of infinite curves, or those that never can return into themselves, 

 like the parabola. The principle may be applicable here, as it certainly 

 is in many other parts of the range. 



Mt. Adams does not, like Madison, present ledges upon its summit. 

 Frost has broken down the rocks, and fragments are strewn universally 

 over the cone. You can find one comparatively small block, standing 

 above every other one, at the very apex. Hence it is impossible to say 

 whether the great, rounding ice-agency has pushed over the summit of 



