KIEGER CREEK CANYON AS A TYPE 85 



The facts presented by Kieger canyon, on the other hand, are con- 

 sistent with the idea that a deep water-cut trench existed before the 

 small glaciers from the south entered it, and that it has experienced 

 what may be termed a small degree of glacial erosion. This conclusion 

 finds support also in the fact that, so far as has been discovered, none of 

 the other canyons on the Stein mountains show evidence of glaciation. 

 Kieger canyon heads in the highest portion of the upturned block in 

 which it has been excavated, but the advantages thus assured in refer- 

 ence to snow accumulation are not conspicuous. Seemingly the condi- 

 tions were so delicately adjusted that a glacier was formed at the head 

 of Kieger canyon, but not in neighboring canyons. This condition of 

 delicate adjustment of elevation and topographic conditions to the cli- 

 mate of the region is now manifest by the presence of perennial snow 

 banks in the shelter of northward-facing cliffs on the border of Kieger 

 canyon and their absence on the borders of the neighboring canyons. 



Considering all the evidence and endeavoring to make a just allowance 

 for personal equation, it seems justifiable to conclude that Stein moun- 

 tain was deeply dissected by streams previous to the Glacial epoch, and 

 that during that epoch snow accumulated on its summit portion and 

 gave origin to glaciers on the south side of Kieger canyon, near its 

 source. These small glaciers descended into the canyon and formed a 

 trunk glacier 4 or 5 miles long. With the amelioration of climate as 

 the Glacial epoch drew to a close the ice melted out of the canyon, but 

 still lingered in the form of small glaciers in the cirques under the shel- 

 ter of its south wall and at the localities where perennial snow is still 

 present. The small side glaciers high on the wall of the canyon exca- 

 vated alcoves for the reason that in the earlier portion of their existence 

 their ice during a certain stage in its advance gained the precipitous 

 slope of the main canyon, there broke off, and descended as avalanches, 

 thus having a lower limit of erosion analogous to a local baselevel estab- 

 lished, and later, when Kieger canyon was occupied by ice, the side gla- 

 ciers became adjusted to its surface level and had the downward limit 

 to which they could excavate determined by this cause. Again, when 

 the ice melted in Kieger canyon, the side glaciers continued their work 

 in the same manner as during their earlier stage. The resulting topo- 

 graphic change was mainly the production of high lateral alcoves or 

 cirques on the side of the main canyon, which constitute, but are not 

 typical examples of, hanging valleys. 



In the case of Kieger canyon, as I have attempted to describe, lateral 

 glaciers entered a main valley which essentially had no cirque or other 

 gathering ground for snow of its own, and that the side glaciers can not 

 consistently be held accountable for any considerable share of the work 



