268 J. W. GOLDTHWAIT GLACIATION IN THE WHITE MOUNTAINS 



head of the ravine. How this supports the view that the ravine was once 

 occupied by a glacier is not clear, since it plainly implies that ridges 

 which might be mistaken for moraines are in reality modern landslide 

 deposits, and not moraines at all. Again, he reports that "boulders of 

 Franconia breccia, like the ledge composing Eagle Cliff" [near the Pro- 

 file House], occur near J. McDonald's in Franconia, 2 miles from the 

 ravine, and in line with the Mount Agassiz col (see plate 13, on which 

 the location of McDonald's is marked "J. McD."). "The distance of 

 their transportation is about 2 miles, and no locality of this rock is known 

 to exist nearer McDonald's than Eagle Cliff. Many of these blocks are 

 1 feet in length." 9 At first sight this appears to be sound evidence of a 

 northward movement, but it raises the question whether, after all, in a 

 country so generally covered with drift it is safe to assume that the 

 localities where certain types of rock are known to exist are the only 

 sources of the drift. Hitchcock's interpretation is not strengthened by 

 his admission that "the ledge near [McDonald's] does not show any ice 

 marks from the local glacier, but there are appearances upon it of the 

 usual southwest movement of the neighborhood. "North of McDonald's 

 the surface of the drift is smooth and nearly flat. This is to be explained 

 by the passage of the ice over it, as in Bethlehem." 10 If smoothness and 

 flatness is to be used as an evidence of the passage of the ice over a surface 

 for a second time, then local glaciation is suggested by similar smooth 

 tracts of limited extent all over New England. There is nothing peculiar 

 about the country referred to by Hitchcock. A moraine-like ridge which 

 trends northwest-southeast is mentioned as possibly connected with the 

 Bethlehem glaciation "as a medial moraine or lateral moraine," 11 but no 

 reasons are offered for attributing it to a local movement rather than to 

 the ice-sheet, which, according to Hitchcock, moved southwestward. "Be- 

 tween Bethlehem Street and Littleton is a Baptist church, near which T 

 observed boulders 15 feet long, 10 wide, and 10 high, whose source is 

 estimated to be from 300 to 500 feet to the south uphill. Their trans- 

 portation down this slope I ascribe to the same local glacier." 12 No 

 evidence is offered for the belief that these came from the ledges which 

 lie just south of them rather than from sources just north of them. 

 The uncertainty of the value of the observation is increased by the state- 

 ment, a few lines beyond, that "the eastern slope of the hill between 

 Bethlehem Street and station is strewn with large boulders of material 

 dmilar to the nearest ledges." One is led to suspect that this is the 



9 Op. cit, pp. 240-241. 



10 Loc. cit. 



11 Loc. cit. 



12 Loc. cit. 



