544 D. W. JOHNSON LOCAL GLACIATION IN WHITE MOUNTAINS 



processes to a late mature stage of erosion; later uplifted to permit a 

 marked incision of stream valleys in the flanks of the snbdned range ; and 

 finally modified by a local glaciation which was sufficiently intense to 

 develop excellent cirques, but which was not continued long enough to 

 consume all the preglacial upland or to produce sharp alpine peaks. The 

 accuracy of these essential elements of Goldthwait's interpretation will 

 scarcely be questioned by the physiographer. The remarkable contrast 

 (plate 36) between the normal valley of Snyder Brook, with its sloping 

 sides and overlapping spurs, and the deep-cut amphitheater of King 

 Eavine, bounded by rocky walls descending precipitously to a broadly 

 open floor, can only be explained by assuming that both valleys were 

 originally of similar form, but that King Eavine alone suffered strong 

 modification by a local glacier. Others of the White Mountain "ravines" 

 and "gulfs" are unquestionable glacial cirques of more or less typical 

 form, and in association with unconsumed remnants of preglacial upland 

 recall the submature glacial features of the Big Horn Mountains in Wy- 

 oming. Tributary valleys such as Jefferson Eavine (plate 37, figure 1) 

 and Tuckerman Eavine enter the main valleys with the distinctly dis- 

 cordant junctions characteristic of a local glacier system, while few places 

 in the country afford more typical glacial troughs than those of the Great 

 Gulf and Crawford Notch (plate 37, figure 2). 



When one considers the more detailed features of White Mountain 

 physiography, it appears that certain hypotheses advanced by Goldthwait 

 to explain topographic peculiarities of the range merit further study. 

 His suggestion that the cirques were completed by local glacial erosion 

 hefore the coming of the continental ice-sheet is novel, while his inter- 

 pretation of the well known felsenmeer on the higher summits as a local 

 block moraine deposited by the continental glacier is not in accord with 

 the usual explanation of this feature. One may question, also, his corre- 

 lation of the White Mountain "lawns," small remnants of a graded upland 

 near the mountain tops, with the so-called Cretaceous peneplane of south- 

 ern New England (plate 37, figure 2). It is the first point alone that I 

 would direct attention in the present paper. 



Evidence derived feom the White Mountain Cirques 



Among the considerations which led Goldthwait to assign an early date 

 to cirque cutting in the White Mountains, two deserve special mention. 

 In the first place, there is a noticeable absence of important local moraines 

 at the mouths of the cirques. In Goldthwait^s opinion the scooping out 

 of the great mass of rock necessary to transform a preglacial valley into 



