RUSSELL.] 
MOUNTAINS. IT 
remarkably smooth escarpment of basalt, concealed in large pari by 
tains, while the south wall is broken by several deep alcoves or side 
canyons, between the months of which there are prominent and in some 
instances remarkably picturesque pinnacles and buttresses of black 
basalt. The scenery of the south wall is remarkably fine, and derives 
its principal geological interest from the fact that the bottoms of the 
side alcoves open out into the main canyon to which they are tribu- 
tary, at a generally uniform horizon, at least 800 feet above its bottom. 
To use a name recently introduced into geographical literature, the 
alcoves referred to are hanging valleys, or valleys which have been 
occupied by and owe their leading characteristics, as is now generally 
conceded, to the work of small glaciers tributary to a much larger ice 
stream. The main canyon of Kieger Creek is broad bottomed, with 
a well-defined U-shape in cross section, due in part, however, to steep 
talus slopes on its side. In brief, the shape of the canyon is such as 
is usually attributed to the work of a stream-like glacier. There is 
an absence of well-marked lateral moraines on the canyon's sides, and 
no polished or striated rock surfaces were observed. In spite of the 
incompleteness of the records, however, it seems safer to conclude that 
the canyon was occupied at one time by a small glacier of the alpine 
type. Four or five small tributaries joined the main glacier on its 
south side, each one being situated in a lateral alcove about 1 mile in 
length. These lateral alcoves have the characterist ic shapes of glacial 
cirques, and at the head of each one snow banks at the present time are 
found throughout the summer. With but a slight change of climate, 
prolonging the winter conditions and increasing the snowfall, these 
lateral alcoves would again be occupied by glaciers. There is an 
absence of glacial records on the bold summit portion of the mountain 
between the deep canyons trenching its gentle west slope, and it 
appears that even during the Glacial epoch the balance of atmospheric 
conditions was only favorable to the accumulation of snow to such an 
extent as to supply small local glaciers in the deeper valleys. Evi- 
dently the mountain was deeply trenched by the westward-flowing 
streams before the Glacial epoch, and the canyons excavated at that 
time were subsequent^ modified in a small way by glacial ice. None 
of the canyons referred to, excepting the one excavated by Kieger 
Creek, was closely examined, but from the descriptions given by resi- 
dents of the region it seems that several of them, including the one 
in which the principal tributary of Donner and Blitzen River rises, 
may have been modified somewhat by glacial ice. Stein Mountain, 
it will be remembered, is an isolated uplift, and the highest elevation 
in eastern Oregon or the neighboring portions of Idaho and Nevada. 
It is also the only mountain in that great region, so far as we now 
know, that bears evidence of having been formerly occupied by 
glaciers. 
Bull. 217—03 2 
