In the mountain region of New Hampshire the glacier swept 
the summits clean of all soil—the accumulations of untold ages 
of subaerial disintegration of the underlying rocks; for this part 
of the continent has been above the sea since early Silurian or 
pre-Silurian times. The action of the glacier here has been com¬ 
pared with that of a river in the rapid part of its course, and that 
in Ohio with the same river, clogged with debris, where its cur¬ 
rent has become sluggish. The one was a region of erosion, the 
other of deposition. This comparison must not, however, be ac¬ 
cepted without some qualifications. 
Mount Kearsarge,* in Merrimack County, New Hampshire, 
about 150 miles from the terminal moraine, afi'ords an exceptionally 
favorable opportunity to study the action of the ice in a region 
of erosion. For it is comparatively isolated and the ledges have 
preserved the glacial striae more perfectly than is usual. 
Mount Kearsarge has an altitude of 2,940 feet above the sea, and 
some 2,000 feet above the surrounding rolling country. With the 
exception of Monadnock, thirty-eight miles distant in a south- 
southwest direction, there is no mountain of an equal height within 
the boundaries of New Hampshire, to the east, south or west. 
To the northward the country is more rugged, culminating in 
the White Mountains; but in this direction, the nearest peak of 
an equal altitude with Kearsarge, Mount Cardigan, is fifteen miles 
away. It happens from this, that while Kearsarge is but a hill 
when compared with the mountains further north, its surroundings 
give to it a prominence which some of the loftier peaks lack. Its 
summit is bare rock. 
Geologically, Kearsarge is associated with Ragged Mountain, 
six miles north of it, and a trifle over 2,000 feet in altitude, for both 
mountains are composed of the same peculiar rocks; but topo¬ 
graphically, the two peaks are entirely distinct, as they are sep¬ 
arated by v the Black water Valley, which here has an elevation of 
less than 700 feet above sea. 
The Kearsarge rocks consist of highly tilted strata of a more or 
less siliceous mica schist with occasional quartzitic bands, the 
group being characterized by the presence of crystals of andalu- 
*This must not be confounded with the mountain sometinfes called by the same name, near 
North Conway, N. H. 
