702 ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS 



only good-sized tributaries to them, in many instances no larger than the ice- 

 masses contributed by cirques on neighboring mountain crests. 



The explanation of this relative paucity of ice on the cone of Mount Rainier 

 during the last glacial epoch is sought in a lowering of the level or zone of 

 maximum precipitation concomitant with the depression of the isotherms. The 

 level of maximum precipitation is estimated to lie at present between 8,000 and 

 10.000 feet. or. roughly. 5.000 feet below the summit of the mountain. The 

 prevalence of maturely developed cirques of large capacity at altitudes between 

 4.000 and 6.000 feet, not only in the immediate vicinity of Mount Rainier, hut 

 throughout a large portion of the Cascade Range, taken together with the 

 absence of evidences of a former proportionate increase in the volume of the 

 ice-streams on the cone of Mount Rainier, points strongly to the probability 

 that during the last glacial epoch the level of maximum precipitation was 

 depressed to altitudes between 4.000 and 6.000 feet 



The cone of Mount Rainier, accordingly, rose high above this zone of deep 

 snows into atmospheric strata of relative aridity, and this no doubt was true 

 of the other lofty volcanoes of the Cascade Range. 



CHARACTERS OF THE OLDER SECTIONS OF THE XI AGAR A GORGE AXD THEIR 

 CORRELATIOX WITH GREAT LAKES HISTORY 



BY FRANK B. TAYLOR 



{Abstract) 



In his studies in the Niagara region a number of years ago Dr. G. K. Gilbert 

 found that the first flow of Niagara River poured over the escarpment at five 

 different places, the present place being the most westerly. Obviously, the 

 river discharged only a fractional part of its volume through any one channel, 

 and yet three of the channels east of Lewiston indicate large volumes. Alto- 

 gether the several channels show that the total volume was nearly if not quite 

 as large as at present and certainly several times larger than the discharge of 

 Lake Erie alone. 



In the Great Lake history it is found that the first flow of Niagara River 

 carried not only the discharge of Lake Erie, but also that of Early Lake Algon- 

 quin. The latter lake covered the south half of Lake Huron, and though re- 

 ceiving nothing from Lake Michigan or Lake Superior, received a large contri- 

 bution from the east from the region of Georgian Bay and Lake Simcoe and the 

 ice-sheet north of them: but this arrangement of drainage was short lived. It 

 ended when the retreat of the ice-sheet opened the outlet at Kirkfield. Ontario, 

 for this outlet immediately carried off the whole discharge of the upper three 

 lakes, leaving Niagara with only the discharge of Lake Erie, which is approxi- 

 mately 15 per cent of Niagara's present volume. There is abundant proof that 

 this arrangement lasted for a relatively long time; but it was finally brought to 

 a close by a great uplift of northern lands, which raised Kirkfield above the 

 level of Port Huron and sent the discharge of the three upper lakes to Lake 

 Erie and Niagara. 



These three stages of the Great Lake history are clearly defined. Where are 

 the!*- correlatives in the Niagara gorge? 



Spencer', with a different conception of the lake history, attributes the en- 

 tire stretch of gorge from its mouth up to the head of Foster's Flats to what he 



