214 BULLETIN OF THE 



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

 which is everywhere upon the mountain very low, leaving an unusual 

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

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

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

 the blocks are 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 sui-face has been so shattered that only on faces 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 Eeports, a brief article by the late Dr. John De Laski,* 

 of Vinalhaven, 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- 

 allel of 46°, therefore, crosses the northern base of the mountain. Far- 

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

 according to the computation of Mr. W. H. Pickering, 161 miles distant 

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

 altitude only to the highest summits of the 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 striae, or polish. Examination for them 

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

 trail from the Aboljacarmegus Stream, about a mile from its beginning, 

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

 * Am. Jour. Sci., [3.] III. pp. 27-31, 1872. 



