292 J. W. GOLDTHWAIT GLACIATION IN THE WHITE MOUNTAINS 



cult-cut" upland like that on the northern half of the range. Whether 

 the amount of cliff cutting requires the occupancy of these ravines by 

 actual glaciers or whether it may be attributed to nivation alone is a 

 question which it would be unsafe to settle on mere topographic evidence ; 

 but in the light of the very pronounced glacial sculpture on the eastern 

 and northern sides of Mount Washington, the presence of small glaciers 

 at the ravine heads named above seems not unlikely. 



A very limited development of valley glaciers is indicated also by the 

 absence of cirque form in the ravines on the north side of the Franconia 

 Mountains. The broad, steep-sided valley which heads between Mount 

 Garfield and the Twin Mountains and which is drained by the eastern- 

 most branch of Gale Eiver appears somewhat troughlike, as seen from the 

 north, with spurs which show fairly distinct shoulders. T was not able 

 to satisfy myself, from the top of Mount Garfield, that this ravine has a 

 cirquelike head, and there are no contour maps which afford good detail. 

 On closer study, however, this might prove to belong in the class with 

 Kings Eavine and the Great Gulf. The White Cross Eavine, as reported 

 on a preceding page, appears to possess only ordinary torrent-worn slopes. 

 Its head is steep, but there is no semicircular headwall, and the descent 

 is rapid and uniform along a V-shaped gorge. Eavines which occupy the 

 western side of Lafayette and Lincoln and which descend toward the 

 Flume House are much more bowl-like at their heads ; yet they, too, lack 

 the full strength of form which characterizes the Mount Washington 

 cirques. It is doubtful, therefore, if there was any considerable develop- 

 ment of valle} r glaciers on the Franconia Mountains during the period of 

 local snowfields. The summits of the Franconia Mountains south of 

 Lafayette are peaked like it and of inferior altitude, so the conditions 

 for local snowfields on them are less favorable than on that mountain. 



A more cirquelike form was found in Jobildunk Eavine, on the eastern 

 side of Mount Moosilauke (4,810 feet). We camped on its floor, climbed 

 its side walls and headwall, and looked down into it from the trail which 

 ends on its brink, about three-quarters of a mile east of the Tip Top 

 House. The ravine is a broad trough, heading in a complete semicircular 

 cliff, the height of which is at least 300 feet. Above the cliff there is a 

 fairly steep upper extension of the rim, in a curved, block-strewn slope of 

 the mountain, much as the cliff at the head of Tuckermans Eavine has a 

 steep, funnel-like slope of ledge and talus on its brink; only in the case 

 of Mount Moosilauke the slope is clothed with scrub forest. At the foot 

 of the headwall of Jobildunk Eavine blocks lie massed in great apron- 

 like slopes on the floor, partly filling the first quarter mile of its bowl-like 

 head ; but beyond that point the floor is nearly flat, descending without 



