204 SURFACE GEOLOGY. 
and here I discovered many examples of embossed rocks. They are, as we might 
expect, much less distinct than in many other places less exposed to decomposing 
agencies, and I should probably have passed by them without recognition, had I not 
previously examined many other more distinct examples. So far as Mt. Clinton has 
been uncovered, it seems one huge boss more or less rounded. As we begin to ascend 
Mt. Pleasant, the embossed rocks are quite distinct; and here, too, are boulders most 
evidently transported. Here, too, I discovered strie# running N. 30° W., S. 30° E., 
corresponding essentially with the general course of stria on the mountains of New 
Hampshire and Massachusetts. * * Near the south foot of Mt. Franklin is another 
example of the embossed rocks with boulders. * * Finally, at the south foot of Mt. 
Washington, near a small pond called Lake of the Clouds, is a third example of the 
Roches moutonnes. Itis less distinct than at the other localities, as the rock here is 
more broken up by frost; still itis impossible for a practised eye not to recognize 
them. And it ought to be stated that here it is the north-west exposure of the rocks 
that has been most powerfully acted upon, proving conclusively that the force was ex- 
erted from that direction. * * Can there be any reasonable doubt that the rocks on 
the summits of all these peaks were once abraded by the same agency, and that, were 
they in place, they would still exhibit traces of it? 
Conclusions. In the first place, the same glacio-aqueous agency that has operated in 
a south-easterly direction over the northern parts of the continent, at the lowest and at 
intermediary levels, has acted in the same manner and in the same direction upon the 
summits of the White Mountains. * * Hence, thirdly, we have no reason to sup- 
pose that the White Mountains have ever been a centre from which boulders have been 
dispersed ; and no evidence has been discovered on the sides of the mountain of the 
former existence of glaciers. * * * * * * 
But as no ice-marks were discovered on the highest summit, my father 
and others could not affirm what they seemed to have believed, that the 
glacier did move over the summit. Every geological text-book in the 
land has followed the leading of the facts just stated; and it has seemed 
an established dictum, that no ice marks could occur above about five 
thousand feet. 
In 1870 I traversed Mt. Washington, following the usual paths, and 
discovered small transported stones of a nature foreign to the moun- 
tain, at an altitude of 5,800 feet. The locality was at the then upper 
tank of the railway. Not much search was made, as it seemed prepos- 
terous to question the conclusions of my predecessors, though my note- 
book stated that the ledges above these pebbles exhibit the usual appear- 
ance of embossment produced by glacial agency, the force having come 
from a north-westerly direction, but no strize were seen upon them. In 
