Tacumcari Mountcdn. — Cummins. 375 
tion of the ice boundary was fifty to one hundred miles back from 
the lobed extensions of the ice-sheet on each side."* 
The slowl}^ changing land wings are only afliected by long con- 
tinued causes, while the water front easily vacillates with any 
slight change of conditions. The Muir glacier affords a striking 
illustration. In 1886 the water front extended about fifteen hun- 
dred feet beyond the land wings, indicating advance. In 1890 it 
was in a very low condition and at least fifteen hundred feet back 
of the land wings, as beautifully shown in photograph taken by 
Prof. Keid.t In 1891 Miss Scidmore found the front still in em- 
bayed form, but it is a significant fact that the season of 1892, 
like 188G, was a season of real advance, as shown both by the 
form of water-front and by the fact that the ice had actually ad- 
vanced nearly to the position occupied in 1886. 
It should be noted that a small angle of ice, in the center, pro- 
jecting, even in the embayed form, beyond the rest of the water 
front, is no indication of the general condition of the glacier, but 
only of the moi'e rapid motion in the center. 
E. While the width of outlet from the great amphitheater of 
the Muir glacier only slightly exceeds the width of many Alpine 
glaciers, the area of ice to be discharged through this outlet is 
much greater than the area of any Alpine glacier. 
The remarkable changes in the glacier are evidently due to this 
concentration of effects, and do not demand unusual changes of 
climate. What the difference of meteorological conditions may 
have been it is impossible to say, on account of the fragmentary 
character of the observations taken in Alaska, and their distance 
from Glacier ba}-. 
TUCUMCARI MOUNTAIN. 
By W. F. Cummins, Austin, Tex. 
Tucumcari mountain is situated in New Mexico on the south 
side of the Canadian river about fifty miles west of the west line 
of Texas. It is one of a number of buttes in that vicinit}', remnants 
of the old table land. 
In 1853, professor Marcou passed through that part of the 
country and afterwards published a map of the line traveled over 
through eastern New Mexico. 
*See also "Glacial Lakes in Canada," Bulletin, G. S. A., vol. ii, p. 273, 
fNat. Geog. Mag., vol. iv, p. 47. 
