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BULLETIN OF I'lIL 



angular, often tabular fragments, as far down as to the tree line, 

 wirich is every wlicrc upon the xnountaiu very low, leaving an unusual 

 amount of naked rock above. These slopes present much the same 

 appearance as does the top of Mt. AYasliington southward from the 

 Summit House toward the Lake of the Clouds, except that on Ktaadn 

 the blocks arc larger, and the slopes much more abrupt. 



All the summits so far described are bare of vegetable growth larger 

 than lichens, or shrubs like the mountain cranberry, almost as diminu- 

 tive as mosses, and are therefore open to close inspection. The whole 

 rock surface has been so shattered that only on feces of cliffs too steep 

 to allow the accumulation of detritus is rock in place to be found. To 

 the east spur of Pamela, the " Horseback," the last statement will not 

 apply. This narrow ridge may be said, in a great measure, to have 

 shed its ruins as they have been formed. Consequently, the spur, over 

 all its upper part, exhibits along the ridge abundant granite in place. 

 Here, of course, the present surface is of recent origin. 



Except a few paragraphs in the brief accounts of hurried visits 

 made to Ktaadn by Dr. Jackson and Prof. Hitchcock, contained in the 

 Maine Geological lieports, a brief article by the late Dr. John De Laski,* 

 of Vinalhavcn, and a reference of three lines in the second and third 

 editions of Dana's Manual of Geology, based upon an erroneous state- 

 ment of De Laski's, I recall nothing in print that specially relates to 

 glaciation in connection with Ktaadn. Prof. Fernald's observations for 

 the latitude of the highest peak make it to be 45° 53' 40'^ The par- 

 all-el of 46", therefore, crosses the northern base of the mountain. Far- 

 ther north than Mt. AVashington by over one degree and a half, and, 

 according to the computation of Mr. W. H. Pickering, IGl miles distant 

 from it in a straight lino, and of New England mountains inferior in 

 altitude only to the highest summits of tlie Washington group, Ktaadn 

 becomes of so much interest that, but for the inaccessible nature of the 

 region, the mountain and its vicinity would long since have been thor- 

 oughly explored for testimony upon the question of a great northern 

 ■ ice-sheet, and the existence of former local glaciers. 



As might be expected, upon summits changed from the original con- 

 dition to the extent that has been indicated, days of search failed to 

 discover any signs of glacial stride, or polish. Examination for them 

 was made also, without result, on the lower slopes : first, where the 

 trad from the Aboljacarmcgus Stream, about a mde from its beginning, 

 crosses a succession of bare granite areas, and at the next exposure of 



* Am. Jour. Sci., [;3.] 111. IT- 27-31, 1S72. 





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