Glaciation of Mountains, etc. — W. Uphain. 213 
glaciers. The torrents flowing from them evidently modified 
much of the older drift, and deposited it in a stratified form 
in these valley bottoms as we now see it. In this way the 
moraines were partly destroyed. Ascending these valleys to 
their head, the upper limits of the thick drift masses are 
reached, beyond which, on the steeper mountain slope, the 
explorer finds the evidences of glaciation in rochesmouionnees 
and scattered bowlders only." 
The general direction of the glacial current in the region of 
the Catskills, as shown by striae, was southwestward, being 
directed normally toward the glacial boundary, which passes 
west-northwesterly from Staten island across northern New 
Jersey and northeastern Pennsylvania to Little Valley near 
Salamanca, New York. 
With the slopes of the North American ice-sheet ascertained 
in Maine, New Hampshire, and New York, we may instruct- 
ively compare that of the ice-sheet which moved westward 
from northern Scotland across the Minch and the Hebrides, 
found by professor James Geikie to have had a descent of 
twenty-five feet per mile ; "but slight as that incline was," he 
remarks, "it was probably twice as great as the slope of the 
7ner de glace that filled up the German ocean." 
In Essex county, Massachusetts, forming the northeast cor- 
ner of this state, the courses of glacial striae and transporta- 
tion of bowlders range from S. 30° E. to S. 50° E. ; elsewhere 
in eastern Massachusetts they are generally about S. 20° E. ; 
in the central portion of the state, about S. 10° E. ; and on the 
mountains of Berkshire county, S. E. Dr. Edward Hitchcock 
reported striae bearing nearly north to south on the top of 
Wachusett, and on Mts. Holyoke and Tom. In Rhode Island 
the striation is nearly due S. ; and in Connecticut generally 
S. S. E. Professors J. D. Dana and C. H. Hitchcock have 
called attention to a deflection of the striae along the Con- 
necticut and Merrimack rivers to a course due south or a 
little west of south, conforming with the direction of these 
valleys. 
Exceptions to the general course of striation, diverging 
from it 10° to 40°, are also occasionally found in all parts of 
New England and New York. Many of these deflected striae 
doubtless belong to the time of recession of the ice-sheet, 
when the direction of flow close to the irregular indented 
