836 G. H. SQUIER 
insufficiency of the conditions for the production of glaciers. 
The present maximum height of Trempealeau bluff is but 548 
feet above the river. It was, of course, less at that time in propor- 
tion to the amount of submergence. 
But even were the elevation sufficient to allow of the forma- 
tions of snow fields on the hilltops, and not elsewhere, still as 
most of the hills are little more than sharp ridges it would be 
quite impossible that the snow fields should have possessed 
volume sufficient to originate glaciers. 
My own opinion is that under the influence of the wind the 
valleys themselves received a much larger annual accumulation 
of snow than would fall on the level, which, should it exceed in 
amount that which could be melted during the summer, would 
in time fill the valleys. 
This suggests the further question whether were the valleys 
so filled there would be sufficient weight in the mass to give rise 
to glacial motion. A partial answer seems to be found in the 
small glaciers separated by Mt. Muir from the Sierra Nevada 
near the Yosemite Valley, which ‘‘have the structure and motion 
of true glaciers, but the largest is not more than a mile in length, 
and they vary in width from half a mile to a few feet.’”’ Some 
of those are therefore certainly smaller than the smallest indi- 
cated in this vicinity. Further information along this line would, 
however, be very desirable. 
G. H. Souier. 
