La h'SON.] 



The Upper Kern Basin . 



347 



face of bare rock which is presented by the east wall of the canon 

 below Volcano Creek. This wall has an altitude to the summit 

 of Tower Rock of about 2150 feet. In the afternoon sun the 

 reverberation from such a surface would contribute in no small 

 measure to the melting of the ice. The second condition is, that 

 the western side of the glacier, in the time of its greatest exten- 

 sion, passed over the place now occupied by the expansive cone 

 of Coyote Ci-eek. Coyote Creek was, with little doubt, caused to 

 cross the glacier, and in doing so, it, with equally little doubt, 

 covered its west side with a veneer of alluvial detritus from the 

 canon above, which protected the ice and restrained its melting. 

 These two conditions together may have conspired to confine the 

 ice stream to the west side of the canon and so steer it into the 

 mouth of the kerncol just below Coyote Creek. 



Just east of the north end of the kernbut, where it was mantled 

 by the ice, is a series of stream terraces extending up to perhaps 

 100 feet above the Kern. The slope of these terraces pitches 

 rapidly down stream. Their local character indicates a genetic 

 relationship with the glacier. They are evidently due to the 

 reduction by stages of a locally acute aggradation embankment 

 or alluvial cone. Under the conditions above indicated, whereby 

 Coyote Creek was forced to flow over the surface of the glacier, 

 a large amount of its alluvial deposition would be transferred to 

 the edge of the ice and a cone would be built up. Owing to the 

 migration of the stream riding upon the moving ice and the 

 recurrent adjustment to correct for this migration such a cone 

 would have no well defined apex but would be broad and vague. 

 On the waning of the glacier the stream would be lowered and 

 would cut down the cones in a series of terraces. Such an 

 embankment would tend to crowd the Kern River to the east side 

 of the canon as it emerged from below the ice somewhat higher 

 up; and this appears to have been the case, for it is evident that 

 the comparatively broad terrace at the base of Tower Rock was 

 once the stream bed of the Kern. 



The hypothesis above outlined is, however, not the only one 

 that may be offered in explanation of these terraces. Another 

 which has recently been suggested to the writer by Mr. Gilbert, 

 is that embankment and terraces are due to the Kern River itself 



