8 J. W. Goldthwait — Glacial Cirques 



(a) the ravines or gulfs lie on all sides of the range, and 

 trend in all directions. Those which we visited and studied 

 last summer have the following courses : 



Ravine of the Castles, N. 50° W. 

 King Ravine, N. 20° W. 

 Bumpus Basin, N. 10° E. 

 Madison Ravine, S. 50° E. 

 Jefferson Ravine, S. 75° E. 

 Great Gulf, N. 35° E. 

 Huntington Ravine, S. 40° E. 

 Tuckerman Ravine, S. 80° E. 

 Gulf of Slides, due east. 



Several ravines southwest of Mount Washington, seen only 

 from a distance and not yet mapped with sufficient care to give 

 assurance of their glacial origin, seem to be cirques ; likewise 

 Oakes Gulf, south of Mount Washington, which trends south- 

 ward. 



(b) Side by side with these gulfs, on the slopes of the range, 

 are one or two typical torrent-carved valleys. Perhaps the 

 most striking example is the valley of Snyder Brook, which 

 descends the northern end of the range, midway between 

 King Ravine and Bumpus Basin. In his contour map of the 

 "Northern Peaks," published by the Appalachian Mountain 

 Club, Mr. Louis F. Cutter has brought out with great fidelity 

 the contrast between this narrow ravine, which bends from 

 side to side several times during its steep descent, and the 

 broad, straight, steep-walled trough which lies beside it. 

 These two ravines are utterly unlike in shape and size ; and 

 yet they are occupied by streams approximately equal in vol- 

 ume, and in their ability to transport whatever material is 

 delivered to them. The process which has so clearly broadened 

 King Ravine, trimming away the intervening spur, Durand 

 Ridge, to form the "Knife Edge," has not operated in the 

 valley of Snyder Brook. 



The Origin of the Ravines. 



In his report of 1875, Hitchcock accounts for the peculiar 

 shape of the ravine as follows : 



" Tourists are fond of imagining this and other ravines in the 

 State as the product of some tremendous earthquake throe. They 

 are more easily explained by the action of frosts, gravity, and 

 water power. With the elevation of the mountains, there will 

 naturally be a few lines of depression which give origin to 

 streams. In the cooler season the water freezing in the seams 

 of the rock will detach slabs and blocks of stone. These acted 



