22 THE ICE AGE IN NORTH AMERICA. 



their perfume, and the open spaces are gorgeous with their 

 masses of brilliant color. 



The following is the description of the glaciers of this 

 mountain cluster, as given by Mr. S. F. Emmons, of the 

 United States Geological Survey, the first to ascend it : 



The main White River glacier, the grandest of the whole, 

 pours straight down from the rim of the crater in a northeast- 

 erly direction, and pushes its extremity farther out into the 

 valley than any of the others. Its greatest width on the steep 

 slope of the mountain must be four or five miles, narrowing 

 toward its extremity to about a mile and a half ; its length can 

 be scarcely less than ten miles. The great eroding power of 

 glacial ice is strikingly illustrated in this glacier, which seems 

 to have cut down and carried away, on the northeastern side 

 of the mountain, fully a third of its mass. The thickness of 

 rock cut away — as shown by the walls on either side — and the 

 isolated peak at the head of the triangular spur . . . may be 

 roughly estimated at somewhat over a mile. Of the thick- 

 ness of the ice of the glacier I have no data for making esti- 

 mates, though it may probably be reckoned in thousands of feet. 



It has two principal medial moraines, which, where crossed 

 by us, formed little mountain-ridges, having peaks nearly one 

 hundred feet high. The sources of these moraines are cliffs 

 on the steeper mountain-slope, which seem mere black specks 

 in the great white field above ; between these are great cas- 

 cades, and below, immense transverse crevasses, which we had 

 no time or means to visit. The surface water flows in rills 

 and brooks on the lower portion of the glacier, and moulins 

 are of frequent occurrence. We visited one double moulin, 

 where two brooks poured into two circular wells, each about 

 ten feet in diameter, joined together at the surface but sepa- 

 rated below ; we could not approach near enough the edge to 

 see the bottom of either, but, as stones thrown in sent back 

 no sound, judged they must be very deep. 



This glacier forks near the foot of the steeper mountain- 

 slope, and sends off a branch to the northward, which forms a 

 large stream flowing down to join the main stream fifteen or 

 twenty miles below. Looking down on this from a high, over- 



