nKPAKTMlOXT Oh' TUB 1STHUIOR

BULLETIN

Qff 1JIF,

UNITED STATES

GEOLOGICAL SUIIVEY

ISTo. 104=

THE GLACIATION OF THK YELLOW,STONE GALLEY 

KOJiTIl OF THK I'AKli

WASniNGTOK 

GOVERNMENT miNTlNG- OFFICE

LIBRARY CATALOGUE SLIPS.

United States. Department of the interior. (U. S. geological survey.} 

Department of the interior | | Bulletin | of the | United 

States | geological survey | no. 104 | [Seal of the department] | 

Washington | government printing office | 1893

Second title: United States geological survey | J. W. Powell, 

director | | The | glaciatiou of the Yellowstone valley | north 

of the park | by | Walter Harvey Weed | [Vignette]

Washington | government printing office | 1893

8°. 41pp. 4 pi.

Weed (Walter Harvey).

United States geological survey | J. W. Powell, director | | 

The | glaciation of the Yejlowstone valley | north of the park | 

by | Walter Harvey Weed | [Vignette] | 

Washington | government printing office | 1893 

8°. 41 pp. 4 pi.

[UNITED STATES. Department of the interior. (U. S. geological survey.) 

Bulletin 104].

United States geological survey | J. W. Powell, director | | 

The | glaciation of the Yellowstone valley | north of the park | 

by | Walter Harvey Weed | [Vignette] |

Washington | government printing office | 1893

8°. 41 pp. 4 pi.

[UNITED STATES. Department of the interior. (U. S. geological survey.) 

Bulletin 104]. :

[Bulletin No. 104.]

The publications of the United States Geological Survey are issued in accordance with the statute 

approved March 3, 1879, which declares that 

"The publications of the Geological Survey shall consistof the annual report of operations, geological 

and economic maps illustrating the resources and classification of the lands, and reports upon gener.il 

and economic geology and paleontology. The annual report of operations of the Geological Survey 

shall accompany the annual report of the Secretary of the Interior. All special memoirs and reports 

of said Survey shall be issued in uniform quarto series if deemed necessary by the Director, lint otherwise in ordinary octavos. Three thousand copies of each shall be published for scientific exchanges 

and for sale at the price of publication; and all literary and cartographic materials received in exchange 

shall be the property of the United States and form a part of the library of the organization; and the 

money resulting from the sale of such publications shall he covered into the Treasury of the United 

States."

On July 7, 1882, the following joint resolution, referring to all Government publications, was passed 

by Congress:

"That whenever any document or report shall be ordered printed by Congress, there shall be printed, 

in addition to the number in each case stated, the 'usual number' (1,734) of copies for binding and 

distribution among those entitled to receive them."

Except in those cases in which an extra number of any publication has been supplied to the Survey 

by special resolution of Congress or has been ordered by the Secretary of the Interior, this oflice has 

no copies for gratuitous distribution.

ANNUAL REPORTS.

I. First Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, by Clarence King. 3880. 8°. 70pp. 

1 map. A preliminary report describing plan of organization and publications.

II. Second Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, 1880-'81, by .1. AV. Powell. 1882. 

8°. Iv, 588pp. 02 pi. Imap.

III. Third Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, 1881-'82, by J. AV. Powell. 1883. 

8°. xviii, 564pp. 07 pi. and maps.

IV. Fourth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, 1882-'83, by J. W. Powell. 1884. 

8°. xxxii, 473 pp. 85 pi. and maps.

V. Fifth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, 1883-'84, by J. W. Powell. 1885. 

8°. xxxvi, 4G9pp. 58 pi. and maps.

VI. Sixth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, 1884-'85, by J. AV. Powell. 1885. 

8°. xxix, 570 pp. 05 pi. and maps.

VII. Seventh Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, 1885-'86, by.T. AV. Powell. 1.888. 

8°. xx, 050 pp. 71 pi. and maps.

VIII. Eighth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, 188C-'87, by J". AV. Powell. 1880. 

8°. 2pt. xix, 474, xit pp. 53 pi. and maps; 1 p. 1., 475-1003 pp. 54-76 pi. and maps.

I.. Ninth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, 1887-'88, by J. AV. Powell. 1880. 

8°. xiii, 717 pp. 88 pi. and maps.

.. Tenth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, 1888-'89, by J. AV. Powell. 1890. 

8°. 2pt. xv, 774pp. 98 pi. and maps; viii. 123pp.

.I. Eleventh Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, 1889-'90, by J. AV. Powell. 1891. 

8°. 2pt. xv, 757 pp. 00 pi. and maps; ix, 351 pp. 30 pi.

.II. Twelfth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, 1890-'9I, by J. AV. Powell. 1891. 

8°. 2pt. xiii, 075 pp. 53 pi. and maps; xviii, 570 pp. 140 pi, and maps.

.III. Thirteenth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, 189l-'92, by J. AV. Powell. 

1893. 8°. 3pt.

MONOGRAPHS.

I. Lake Bonneville, by Grove Karl Gilbert. 1890. 4°. xx, 438 pp. 51 pi. 1 map. Price $1.50.

II. Tertiary History of the Grand Cation District, with atlas, by Clarence E. Button, Capt. U. S. A. 

1882. 4°. xiv, 204pp. 42 pi. and atlas of 24 sheets folio. Price $10.00.
II ADVERTISEMENT.

III. Geology of the Comstock Lode and the Washoe District, with atlas, by George F. Becker. 1882. 

4<i. xv, 422pp. 7 pi. and atlas of 21 sheets folio. Price $11.00.

IV. Comstock Mining and Miners, by Eliot Lord. 1883. 4°. xiv, 451 pp. 3 pi. Price $1.50.

V. Tho Copper-Bearing Rocks of Lake Superior, by Roland Drier Irving. 1883. 4°. xvi, 4C4 pp. 

151. 29 pi. and maps. Price $1.85.

VI. Contributions to the Knowledge of the Older Mesozoic Flora of Virginia, by William Morris 

Fontaine. 1883. 4°. xi, 144 pp. 541. 54 pi. Price $1.05.

VII. Silver-Lead Deposits of Eureka, Nevada, by Joseph Story Curtis. 1884. 4°., xiii, 200 pp. 16 

pi. Price $1.20.

Vin. Paleontology of the Eureka District, by Charles Doolittle Walcott. 1884. 4°. xiii, 298 pp. 

241. 24 pi. Price $1.10.

IX. Brachiopoda and Lamellibranchiata of the Raritaii Clays and Greensaud Marls of New Jersey, 

by Robert P. Whitfield. 1885. 4°. xx, 338pp. 35 pi. 1 map. Price $1.15.

X. Diuocerata. A Monograph of an Extinct-Order of Gigantic Mammals, by Othuiel Charles Marsh. 

188C. 4°. xviii, 243pp. 501. 56 pi. Price $2.70.

XI. Geological History of Lake Lahontan, a Quaternary Lake of Northwestern Nevada, by Israel 

Cook Russell. 1885. 4°. xiv, 288 pp. 46 pi. and maps. Price $1.75.

XLT. Geology and Mining Industry of Leadville, Colorado, with atlas, by Samuel Franklin Einmons. 

1886. 4°. xxix, 770 pp. 45 pi. and atlas of 35 sheets folio. Price $8.40.

XIII. Geology of the Quicksilver Deposits of the Pacific Slope, with atlas, by George F. Becker, 

1888. 4°. xix, 480 pp. 7 pi. and atlas of 14 sheets folio. Price $2.00.

XIV. Fossil Fishes and Fossil Plants of the Triassic Rocks of New Jersey and the Connecticut Valley, by John S. Newberry. 1888. 4°. xiv, 152pp. 26 pi. Price $1.00.

XV. Tho Potomac or Younger Mesozoic Flora, by "William Morris Foutaiue. 1889. 4°. xiv, 377 

pp. 180 pi. Text and plates bound separately. Price $2.50.

XVI. The Paleozoic Fishes of North America, by John Strong Newberry. 1889. 4°. 340 pp. 53 pi. 

Price $1.00.

XVII. The Flora of the Dakota Group, a posthumous work, by Leo Lesqueretix. Edited by F. H. 

Knowltou. 1891. 4°. 400pp. 66 pi. Price $1.10.

XVIII. Gasteropoda and Cephalopoda of the Raritan Clays and Greensand Marls of New Jersey, 

by Robert P. Whitfield. 1891. 4°. 402pp. 50 pi. Price $1.00.

XIX. The Peuokee Iron-Bearing Series of Northern Wisconsin and Michigan, by Roland D. Irviug 

and C. R. Van Hise. 1892. 4°.

XX. Geology of the Eureka District, Nevada, with atlaa, by Arnold Hague. 1892. 4°. 419 pp. 8 pi. 

In press:

XXI. The Tertiary Rhynchophorons Coleoptera of North America, by Samuel Hubbard Scudder.

XXII. A Manual of Topographic Methods, by Henry Gannett, chief topographer.

XXIII. Geology of the Green Mountains in Massachusetts, by Raphael Pumpelly, J. E. Wolff, 

T. Nelson Dale, and Bayard T. Putnam. 

In preparation:

 Mollusca and Crustacea of the Miocene Formations of New Jersey, by R. P. Whitfield.

 Sanropoda, by 0. C. Marsh.

 Stegosauria, by 0. C. Marsh.

 Brontotheridaj, by 0. C. Marsh.

 Report on the Denver Coal Basin, by S. F. Emrnous.

 Report on Silver Cliff and Ten-Mile Mining Districts, Colorado, by S. F. Eiuinons.

 The Glacial Lake Agassiz, by Warren TJpham.

BULLETINS.

1. On Hypersthene-Andesite and on Triclinic Pyroxene in Augitic Rocks, by Whitman Cross, with a 

Geological Sketch of Buffalo Peaks, Colorado, by S. F. Eminoiis. 1883. 8°. 42pp. 2 pi. Price 10 cents.

2. Gold and Silver Conversion Tables, giving the coining values of troy ounces of fine metal, etc., computed by Albert Williams, jr. 1883. 8°. 8 pp. Price 5 cents.

3. On the Fossil Faunas of the Upper Devonian, along the meridian of 76° 30', from Tompkius County, 

New York, to Bradford County, Pennsylvania, by Henry S.Williams. 1884. 8°. 36pp. Price 5 cents.

4. On Mesozoic Fossils, by Charles A. White. 1884. 8°. 36 pp.* 9 pi. Price 5 cents.

5. A Dictionary of Altitudes in the United States, compiled by Henry Gannett. 1884. 8°. 325 pp. 

Price 20 cents.

6. Elevations in the Dominion of Canada, by J. W. Spencer. 1884. 8°. 43 pp. Price 5 cents.

7. Mapoteca Geologica Americana. A Catalogue of Geological Maps of America (North and South), 

1752-1881, in geographic and chronologic order, by Jules Marcou and John Belkuap Marcou. 1884. 

8°. 184 pp. Price 10 cents.

8. On Secondary Enlargements of Mineral Fragments in Certain Rocks, by R. D. Irving and C. R. 

Van Hise. 1884. 8°. 56pp. 6 pi. Price 10 cents.

9. A report of work done in the Washington Laboratory during the fiscal year 1883-'S4. F. W. Clarke, 

chief chemist. T. M. Chatard, assistant chemist. 1884. 8°. 40 pp. »J»rice 5 cents.
ADVERTISEMENT. - III

1 10. On the Cambrian Faunas of North America. Preliminary studies, by Charles Doolittle Walcott. 

1884. 8°. 74 pp. 10 pi. Price 5 cents.

11. On the Quaternary and Recent Mollusca of the Great Basin; with Descriptions of New Forms, 

by K. Ellsworth Call. Introduced by a sketch of the Quaternary Lakes of the Great Basin, by G. K. 

Gilbert. 1884. 8°. 66 pp. 6 pi. Price 5 cents.

12. A Crystallographic Study of the Thinolite of Lake Lahontan, by Edward S. Dana. 1884. 8°. 

34 pp. 3 pi. Price 5 cents.

13. Boundaries of the United States and of the several States and Territories, with a Historical 

Sketch of the Territorial Changes, by Henry Gannett. 1885. 8°. 135 pp. Price 10 cents.

14. The Electrical and Magnetic Properties of the Iron-Carburets, by Carl Barus and Vincent 

Strouhal. 1885. 8°. 238 pp. Price 15 cents. .

15. On the Mesozoic and Ceuozoic Paleontology of California, by Charles A. White. 1885. 8°. 33 pp. 

Price 5 cents.

10. On the Higher Devonian Faunas of Ontario County, Now York, by John M. Clarke. 1885. 8°. 

80 pp. 3 pi. Price 5 cents.

17. On the Development of Crystallization in the Igneous Rocks of Washoe, Nevada, with notes on 

the Geology of the District, by Arnold Hague and Joseph P. Iddings. 1885. 8°. 44 pp. Price 5 

cents.

18. On Marine Eocene, Fresh-water Miocene, and other Fossil Mollusca of Western North America, 

by Charles A. White. 1885. 8°. 26pp. 3 pi. Price 5 cents.

19. Notes on the Stratigraphy of California, by George F. Becker. 1885. 8°. 28 pp. Price 5 cents.

20. Contributions to the Mineralogy of the Rocky Mountains, by Whitman Cross and W. F. Hillebraud. 1885. 8°. 114pp. 1 pi. Price 10 cents.

21. The Lignites of the Great Sioux Reservation. A Report on the Region between the Grand and 

Moreau Rivers, Dakota, by Bailey Willis. 1885. 8°. 1C pp. 5 pi. Price 5 cents.

22. On New Cretaceous Fossils from California, by Charles A. White. 1885. 8°. 25 pp. 5 pi. 

Price 5 cents.

. 23. Observations on the Junction between the Eastern Sandstone and the Keweenaw Series on Koweenaw Point, Lake Superior, by R. D. Irviug and T. C. Chamberlin. 1885. 8°. 124 pp. 17 pi. 

Price 15 cents.

24. List of Marine Mollnsca, comprising the. Quaternary Fossils and recent forms from American 

Localities between Capo Hattoras and Cape Roque, including the Bermudas, by William Healy Dall. 

1885. 8°. 330 pp. Price 25 cents.

25. The Present Technical Condition of the Stool Industry of the United States, by Phiueas Barnes. 

1885. 8°. 85 pp. Price 10 cents.

26. Copper Smelting, by Henry M. Howo. 1885. 8°. 107 pp. Price 10 cents.

27. Report of work done in the Division of Chemistry and Physics, mainly during the fiscal year

1884-'85. 1886. 8°. 80pp. Price 10 cents.

28. The Gabbros and Associated Hornblende Rocks occurring in the neighborhood of Baltimore, 

Md., by George Huutiugton Williams. 1886. 8°. 78 pp. 4 pi. Price 10 cents.

29. On the Fresh-water Invertebrates of the North American Jurassic, by Charles A. AVhite. 1886. 

8°. 41pp. 4 pi. Price 5 cents.

30. Second Contribution to the Studies on the Cambrian Faunas of North America, by Charles Doolittle Walcott. 1886. 8°. 369pp. 33 pi. Price 25 cents.

31. Systematic Review of our Present Knowledge of Fossil Insects, including Myriapods and Arachnids, by Samuel Hubbard Scndder. 1886. 8°. 128pp. Price 15 cents.

32. Lists and Analyses of the Mineral Springs of the United States; a Preliminary Study, by .Albert 

C. Peale. 1886. 8°. 235pp. Price 20 cents.

33. Notes on the Geology of Northern California, by J. S. Diller. 1886. 8°. 23pp. Price 5 cents.

34. On the relation of the Laraniie Mollnscan Fauna to that of the succeeding Fresh-water Eocene 

and other groups, by Charles A. AThito. 1886. 8°. 54pp. 5 pi. Price 10 cents.

35. Physical Properties of the Iron-Carburets, by Carl Barns and Vincent Strouhal. 1880. 8°. 62 

pp. Price 10 cents.

36. Subsidence of Fine Solid Particles in Liquids, by Carl Barus. 1886. 8°. 58 pp. Price 10 cents.

37. Types of the Laraniie Flora, by Lester F. Ward. 1887. 8°. 354 pp. 57 pi. Price 25 cents.

38. Poridotite of Elliott County, Kentucky, by J. S. Dillor. 1887. 8°. 31 pp. 1 pi. Price 5 cents.

39. The Upper Beaches and Deltas of the Glacial Lake Agassiz, by Warren Uphaiu. 1887. 8°. 84 

pp. 1 pi. Price 10 cents.

40. Changes in River Courses in Washington Territory due to Glaciatiou, by Bailey Willis. 1887. 

8°. 10 pp. 4 pi. Price 5 cents.

41. On the Fossil Faunas of the Upper Devonian the Genosoo Section, New York, by Henry S. 

Williams. 1887. 8°. 121pp. 4 pi. Price 15 cents.

42. Report of work done in the Division of Chemistry and Physics, mainly during the fiscal year

1885-86. F. W. Clarko, chief chemist. 1887. 8°. 152 pp. 1 pi. Price 15 cents. ;

43. Tertiary and Cretaceous Strata of the Tuscaloosa, Tonibigbeo, and Alabama Rivers, by Eugene 

A. Smith and Lawrence C. Johnson. 1887. 8°. 189pp. 2.1 p'l. Price 15 cents.

44. Bibliography of North American Geology for 1880, by Nelson H. Dartou. 1887. 8°. 35 pp. 

Price 5 cents.
IV ADVEKTISEMENT.

45. The Present Condition of Knowledge of the Geology of Texas, by Robert T. Hill. 18S7. 8°. 94 

pp. Price 10 cents.

46. Nature and Origin of Deposits of Phosphate of Lime, by R. A. F. Penrose, jr., with an Introduction by N. S. Shaler. 1888. 8°. 143 pp. Price 15 cents.

47. Analyses of Waters of the Tellowstone National Park, with an Account of the Methods of 

Analysis employed, by Frank Austin Gooch and James Edward Whitfield. 1888. 8°. 84 pp. Price 

10 cents.

48. On the Form and Position of the Sea Level, by Eobort Simpson Woodward. 1888. 8°. 88 pp. 

Price 10 cents.

49. Latitudes and Longitudes of Certain Points in Missouri, Kansas, and New Mexico, by Robert 

Simpson Woodward. 1880. 8°. 133 pp. Price 15 cents.

50. Formulas and Tables to facilitate the Construction and Uae of Maps, by Robert Simpson Woodward. 1889. 8°. 124 pp. Price 15 cents.

51. On Invertebrate Fossils from the Pacific Coast, by Charles Abiathar White. 1889. 8°. 102 

pp. 14 pi. Price 15 cents.

52. Subaerial Decay of liocks and Origin of the lied Color of Certain Formations, by Israel Cook 

Russell. 1889. 8°. 05 pp. 5 pi. Price 10 cents.

53. The Geology of Nautucket, by Nathaniel Southgato Sbaler. 1889. 8°. 55pp. 10 pi. Price 10 

cents.

54. On the Thermo-Electric Measurement of High Temperatures, by Carl Barns. 1889. 8°. 313 pp. 

incl. 1 pi. 11 pi. Price 25 cents. t

55. Report of work done in the Division of Chemistry and Physics, mainly during the fiscal year 

1880-'87. Frank Wigglesworth Clarke, chief chemist. 1889. 8°. 90 pp. Price 10 cents.

56. Fossil Wood and Lignite of the Potomac Formation, by Frank Hall Knowltou. 1889. 8°. 72 

pp. 7 pi. Price 10 cents.

57. A Geological Reconnaissance in Southwestern Kansas, by Robert Hay. 1890. 8°. . 49 pp. 2 pi. 

Price 5 cents.

58. The Glacial Boundary in Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois, by George 

Frederick Wright, with an introduction by Thomas Chrowder Chainberlin. 1890. 8°. 112pp. incl. 

1 pi. 8 pi. Price 15 cents.

59. The Gabbros and Associated Rocks in Delaware, by Frederick D. Chester. 1890. 8°. 45 pp. 

1 pi. Price 10 cents.

60. Report of work done in the Division of Chemistry and Physios, mainly during th6 fiscal year 

1887-'88. F. W. Clarke. chief chemist. 1890. 8°. 174 pp. Price 15 cents.

01. Contributions to the Mineralogy of the Pacific Coast, by William Harlowe Melville and Waldemar 

Lindgren. 1890. 8°. 40 pp. 3 pi. Price 5 cents.

62. The Greenstone Schist Areas of the Menominee and Marquette Regions of Michigan; a contribution to the subject of dynamic metamorphism in eruptive rocks, by George Huutiugtou Williams; 

with an introduction by Roland Duer Irving. 1890. 8°. 2-11 pp. 16 pi. Price 30 cents.

63. A Bibliography of Paleozoic Crustacea from 1G98 to 1889, including a list of North American 

species and a systematic arrangement of genera, by Anthony W. Vogdes. 1890. 8°. 177 pp. Price 

15 cents.

C4. A report of work done in the Division of Chemistry and Physics, mainly during the fiscal year 

1888-'89. F. W. Clarke, chief chemist. 1890. 8°. CO pp. Price 10 cents.

65. Stratigraphy of the Bituminous Coal Field of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, by Israel 

C. White. 1891. 8°. 212 pp. 11 pi. Price 20 cents.

66. On a Group of Volcanic Rocks from the Tewau Mountains, New Mexico, and on the occurrence 

of Primary Quartz in certain Basalts, by Joseph Paxsou Iddings. 1890. 8°. 34 pp. Price 5 cents.

67. The Relations of the Traps of the Newark System in the New Jersey Region, by Nelson Horatio 

Darton. -1890. 8°. 82pp. Price 10 cents.

68. Earthquakes in California in 1889, by James Edward Keeler. 1890. 8°. 25pp. Price 5 cents.

69. A Classed and Annotated Bibliography of Fossil Insects, by Samuel Hubbard Scudder. 1890. 

8°. 101 pp. Price 15 cents.

70. Reporton Astronomical Workofl889and 1890, by Robert Simpson Woodward. 1890. 8°. 79pp. 

Price 10 cents.

71. Index to the Known Fossil Insects of the World, including Myriapods and Arachnids, by Samuel 

Hubbard Scudder. 1P91. 8°. 744pp. Price 50 cents.

72. Altitudes between Lake Superior and the Rocky Mountains, by Warren Upham. 1891. 8°. 

229 pp. Price 20 cents.

73. The Viscosity of Solids, by Carl Barus. 1891. 8°. xii, 139 pp. 6 pi. Price 15 cents.

74. The Minerals of North Carolina, by Frederick Augustus Genth. 1891. 8°. 119pp. Price 15 

cents.

75. Record of North American Geology for 1887 to 1889, inclusive, by Nelson Horatio Darton. 1891. 

8°. 173 pp. Price 15 cents.

76. A Dictionary of Altitudes in the United States (second edition), compiled by Henry Gannett, 

chief topographer. 1891. 8°. 393pp. Price 25 cents.

77. The Texan Permian and its Mesozoio Types of Fossils, by Charles A. White. 1891. 8°. 51 pp, 

4pi. Price 10 cents.
ADVERTISEMENT. V

78. A report of work done in the Division of Chemistry and Physics, mainly during the fiscal year 

1889-'90. F. AV. Clarko, chief chemist. 1891. 8°. 131pp. Price 15 cents.

79. A Late Volcanic Eruption in Northern California and its Peculiar Lava, by J. S. Diller. 1891. 8°. 

33 pp. 17 pi. Price 10 cents.

80. Correlation papers Devonian and Carboniferous, by Henry Shaler Williams. 1891. 8°. 279pp. 

Price 20 cents.

81. Correlation papers Cambrian, by Charles Doolittle AValcott. 1891. 8°. 447 pp. 3 pi. Price 

25 cents.

82. Correlation papers Cretaceous, by Charles A. White. 1891. 8°. 273pp. 3 pi. Price 20 cents.

83. Correlation papers Eocene, by AAT illiam Bullock Clark. 1891. 8°. 173pp. 2 pi. Price 15 cents.

84. Correlation papers Neocene, by W. H. Dall and G. D. Harris. 1892. 8°. 349 pp. 3 pi. Price 

25 cents.

8f>. Correlation papers The Newark System, by Israel Cook Russell. 1892. 8°. 344 pp. 13 pi. 

Price 25 cents.

80. Correlation papers Archean and Algonkian, by C. E. Van Hise. 1892. 8°. 549 pp. 12 pi. 

Price 25 cents. »

90. A report of work done in the Division of Chemistry and Physics, mainly during the fiscal year 

1890-'91. F. W. Clarko, chief chemist. 1892. 8°. 77 pp. Price 10 cents.

91. Record of North American Geology for 1890, by Nelson Horatio Darton. 1891. 8°. 88pp. Price 

10 cents.

92. The Compressibility of Liquids, by Carl Barns. 1892. 8°. 90pp. 29 pi. Price 10 cents.

93. Some insects of special interest from Florissant, Colorado, and other points in the Tortlaries of 

Colorado and "Utah, by Samuel Hnbbard Scuddor. 1892. 8°. 35 pp. 3 pi. Price 5 cents.

94. The Mechanism of Solid Viscosity, by Carl Barns. 1892. 8°. 138pp. Price 15 cents.

95. Earthquakes in California in 1890 and 1891, by Edward Singleton Holdou. 1892. 8°. 31 pp. 

Price 5 cents. 

90. The Volume Thermodynamics of Liquids, by Carl Barns. 1892. 8°. 100pp. Price 10 cents.

97. The Mosozoic Eehiuodermata of the United States, by W. B. Clark. 1893. 8°. 207pp. 50 pi. 

Price 20 cents.

98. Flora of tlio Outlying Carboniferous Basins of Southwestern Missouri, by David White. 1893. 

8°. 139 pp. 5 pi. Price .15 cents.

99. .Record of North American Geology for 1891, by Nelson Horatio Darton. 1892. 8°. 73pp. Price 

10 cents.

101. Insect Fauna of the Rhode Island Coal Field, by Samuel Hubbard Scndder. 1893. 8°. 27 pp. 

2 pi. Price 5 cents.

104. Glaciatiou of the Yollowstone Valley north of the Park, by W. H. Weed. 1893. 8°. 41 pp 

4 pi. Price 5 cents.

In press:

100. Bibliography and Index of the publications of the U. S. Geological Survey, 1879-1892, by P. C. 

Warm an.

102. A Catalogue and Bibliography of North American Mesozoic Invertebrata, by C. B. Boyle.

103. High Temperature Work in Igneous Fusion and Ebullition, chiefly in relation to pressure, by 

Carl Barns.

105. The Laramio and the overlying Livingstono Formation iu Montana, by AV. H. Weed, with 

Report on Flora, by F. H. Knowlton.

10G. The Colorado Formation and its Invertebrate Fauna, by T. W. Stanton.

107. The Trap Dikes of Lake Champlain Valley and the Eastern Adirondack^, by J. F. Kemp.

108. A Geological Reconnoissance in Central AVashington, by Israel C. Russell.

109. The Eruptive and Sedimentary Rocks on Pigeon Point, Minnesota, and their contact phenomena, by AV. S. Bayley.

110. The Paleozoic Section in the vicinity of Three Forks, Montana, by A. C. Peale.

In preparation:

 Correlation papers Pleistocene, by T. C. Chamberlin.

 The Moraines of the Missouri Coteau, and their attendant deposits, by James Edward Todd.

 On the Structure of the Ridge between the Taconic and the Green Mountain Ranges in Arerinont; and On the Structure of Monument Mountain in Great Barringlon, Mass., by T. Nelson Dale.

 A Bibliography of Paleobotany, by David AVhito.

STATISTICAL PAPERS.

MiuoralResourcesof the United States, 1882, by Albert Williams, jr. 1883. 8°. xvii, 813pp. Price 

50 cents.

Mineral Resources of the United States, 1883 and 1884, by Albert AVilliams, jr. 1885. 8°. xiv, 1016 

pp. Price CO cents.

Mineral Resources of the United States, 1885. Division; of Mining Statistics and Technology. 1886. 

8°. vii, 570 pp. Price 40 cents.

Mineral Resources of. thQUAitcdStates,188G,byD,wi.dT.Day, 18§7,. 8°. viu,813pp % Pri.ee 50 cents.,
VI ADVERTISEMENT.

Mineral Resources of Hie United States, .1887, by David T. Day. 1888. 8°. vii,832pp. Price 50 cents.

Mineral Resources of the United States, 1888, by David T. Day. 1890. 8°. vii. 652pp. Price 50 cents.

Mineral Resources of the United States, 1389 and 1890, by David T. Day. 1892. 8°. viii, 671 pp. 

Price 50 cents.

Mineral Resources of the United States, 1891, by David T. Day. 1893. 8°. vii, 630 pp. Pi ice 50 

cents. 

In preparation:

Mineral Resources of the United States, 1892.

The money received from the sale of these publications is deposited in the Treasury, and the Score! 

tary of the Treasury declines to receive bank cbecks, drafts, or postage stamps; all remittances, therefore, must be by POSTAL NOTE or MONEY ORDER, made payable to the Librarian of the U. S. GeologicaSurvey, or in CURRENCY, for the exact amount. Correspondence relating to the publications of the 

Survey should be addressed

To THE DIRECTOR OF THE

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY,

WASHINGTON, D. C. 

WASHINGTON, D. C., May, 1893.
DBPAKTMEHT OF THE INTEKIOR

BULLETIN

OF THE

UNITED STATES

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

.. 1O4

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

1893

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

J. AV. rOWELL, DIRECTOR -

THE

GLACIATION OF THE YELLOWSTONE VALLEY 

NORTH OF THE PARK

BY

WALTER HARVEY WEED

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1893

CONTENTS.

Page.

Letter of transmittal........................................................ 9

Outline of this paper ....................................................... 11

Introduction................................................................ 13

General description of the region ........................................... 14- 

Th e Yellowstoue glacier .................................................... 14

Limits of glaciatiou ...........'.......................................... 15

Cinnabar Valley of the Yellowstoue ..................................... 15

Bear Gulch and Sheep moan tain .................................... 15

Sepnlcher mountain..............................................'... 16

The valley bottom .................................................. 1C

Cinnabar mountain .................................................. 16

Cinnabar basin ..................................................... 17

Transportation of bowlders to higher levels ......................... 18

Yankee Jim canyov................ ...................................... 18

Emigrant valley ............................... i........................ 1.9

Mountain canyons ....... 1.......................................... 20

Moraini.il heapiugs.................................................. 20

Morainal lakes...................................................... 21

Basalt tables ....................................................... 22

Glacial stream channels............................................. 23

Drift deposits ...................................................... 24

Terraces............................................................ 25

Striated valley slopes ............................................... 26

Foothill canyons ................................................... 27

Relations of canyons to drift ........................................ 30

Origin of transverse CMnyous........................................ 30

Glacial flood plain .................................................. 31

Alluvial terraces.................................................... 31

Discussion of evidence..................'............................ 33

The Boulder glaciers........................................................ 34

General description ................................................. 34

Ne>6 fields......................................................... 36

Canyons ......................................................... A . ' 37

Moraines ........................................................... 38

Terraces............................................................ 39

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Pag*.

Plate J. Map showing the distribution of glacial drift in the Yellowstone

valleys north of the National Park............................ 12

II. Duck lake, a moraine dammed sheet of water ..................... 20

III. Mouth of Emigrant gulch showing glaciated mountain gorge opening into Yellowstone valley........................... ,..... 4 . 22

IV. Glaciated walls of Boulder canyon showing occupancy of entire

canyon by ice................................................. 36

FIG. 1. Glacial terraces of marginal area, valley of the Yellowstone......... 26

7

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, 

TELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK DIVISION,

Washington, J). 6'., May 18, 1892.

SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith a paper by Mr. Walter 

H. Weed, entitled "The Glaciatiou of the Yellowstone Valley north 

of the Park."

During glacial times the broad elevated region of the Yellowstone 

Park was deeply covered by ice, sending out its glaciers both to the 

north and south. .The northern glacier, after emerging from the park, 

entered the broad valley below, near the junction of the Gardiner and 

Yellowstone rivers. In the present paper Mr. Weed presents the results of his investigations of the glacial phenomena of the valley. It 

is a vapluable contribution to glacial geology, and, so far as 1 am aware, 

is the first detailed study of such phenomena in an inclosed mountain 

valley in the Kocky mountains.

I take pleasure in recommending Mr. Weed's paper for publication 

as a bulletin of the TJ. S. Geological Survey. 

Yours, very respectfully,

ARNOLD HAGUE,

Geologist in charge. 

Hon. J. W. POWELL,

Director U. 8. Geological" Survey.

OUTLINE OF THIS PAPER.

The present paper gives a detailed account of the glaciation of the Snowy mountains and of the upper valleys of the Yellowstone, whose deposits show an unusual 

phase of alpine glaciation.

The evidence thus far gathered shows that a large body of ice, originating in the 

}ce sheets of the Yellowstone National Park, pushed northward, filling the upper 

valleys of the Yellowstoue and extending down that stream 36 miles north of the 

park boundary.

The high mountainous area east of the Yellowstone river, a large part of which is 

above 9,000 feet in elevation, AVUS largely mantled by great snow fields and ue"v£s, 

above which the sharper summits projected as spires of rock, giving rise to great 

glaciers moving outwards down the valleys in all directions, forming the Boulder 

glacier and many small streams flowing toward the valley of the Stillwater, while 

other glaciers tilled the valleys south and east and became tributary to the Yellowstone glacier. The high country about Haystack peak and Mount Douglas was the 

center of dispersion for this great ice field.

This evidence shows conclusively that there was no general system of confluent 

glacier's covering all the mountain ranges, but that even the greatest of these 

glaciers extended down the valleys a comparatively short distance and did not 

reach the general foothill country, while such considerable mountain masses as the 

Gallatin range and the high and rugged peaks east of the Lower canyon of the 

Yellowstone, held only local glaciers Avhich nestled in the cirques about the crest of 

the range or rarely extended a short distance down the valleys. The area covered 

by glacial deposits is indicated upon the accompanying map.

These glaciers were all of the alpine type and present many resemblances to 

those now existing in the Mount St. Elias alps. The largest valleys the Yellowstoue and Boulder were occupied by trunk glaciers, completely filling them and 

overriding their flanks, and receiving tribute frortf the lateral valleys where the ice 

.bodies occupying them were large enough to reach the main valley. Throughout 

the entire field the higher mountain peaks rose above the m5v6 fields, though the 

high plateaux and broader mountain summits show considerable glacial abrasion 

and were unquestionably covered by moving ice.

The evidence establishing the former existence of these glaciers consists of the 

varied forms of glacial sculpturing: Roche moutone'es, canyon-broadening, rockscoring and polishing, and the formation of rock basins; and the various types of 

glacial deposits, bowlder trains, blocs perche, the transportation of boulders from 

lower to higher elevations, moraines and kames, and the associated trains of gravel 

forming the system of river terraces, the formation of benches and terraces upon 

hillsides, and the cutting of canyons transverse to the mountain slopes and drainages 

in front of the glacier's termination. The striking contrast between glacial and nonglacial topography is splendidly exhibited in this field.

11
The terraces and canyons cnt acK>ss the foot slopes of the Gallafciu range deserve 

special mention as striking examples of erosiou performed by atreams marginal to 

the ice sheet. 

12
U.S.GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 104 PL.I

£ORTTTEKN" .Q/'.RDUTviDARY YKLLCJSTQM E '

DISTRIBUTION OF GLACIAL DETRITUS IN THE VALLEYS OF THE YELLOWSTONE.

i i 2 3 4-Miles.

SCALE. 

CONTOUR INTERVALS 200 FT.

JULIUS BIEN S. CO.UTH NY.
THE GLACIATION OF THE YELLOWSTONE YALLEY 

NORTH OF THE PARK.

BY WALTER HARVEY WEED.

INTRODUCTION.

The local glaciers of Quaternary times, of which evidences abound 

throughout the highest portions of the Eocky mountain cordillera, attained an unusually extensive development in that broad elevated 

region known as the Yellowstone Park. It was indeed the center of a 

considerable ice sheet whose glaciers spread out and down the valleys 

leading from this mountain region in all directions.1 In the northern 

part of the park two streams of ice found an outlet for their united 

flow northward down the valley of the Yellowstone, and they have 

left impressive memorials of the power and size of this stream that at 

once attract the attention of the observant traveler on the way to the 

famous geyser basins of the park. The number and size of the erratic 

bowlders scattered so abundantly over the valley floor and perched 

high up on the mountain slopes, can not fail to impress the beholder, 

while the second canyon of the Yellowstone, known as Yankee Jim 

canyon, through Avhich the river has cut its way to the broad mountain encircled lower valley, is a grand and perfect piece of ice sculpture 

that affords striking proof of the power and magnitude of the glacier 

which once filled the valley.

While studying and mapping the geology of a portion of the country 

north of the Yellowstone Park, under the direction of Mr. Arnold 

Hague, and for the United States Geological Survey, I found a long 

desired opportunity to study the glaciation of this interesting region.

'See Geol. Hist, of Yellows tone National Park, by Arnold Hague: Trans. Am. lust. Min. Eiigr s. 

1888.

13
14 GLACIATION OF THE YELLOWSTONE VALLEY. [BULL. 104. 

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE REGION.

The region herein discussed is a mountainous tract lying immediately 

north of the Yellowstone National Park, and drained by the Boulder 

and the Yellowstone rivers and many lesser tributary streams. The 

Yellowstone, rising far to the south, is here a noble stream of beryl 

green water which is joined by the Gardiner as it. lea.ves the border 

of the park arid flows northward through Cinnabar valley into a narrow gorge cut in Archean gneisses. From this canyon it darts out 

into a broad mountain flanked valley that is 30 miles long and from 3 

to 6 miles wide, fancifully christened "Paradise valley/' which it leaves 

through the lower canyon, or gate of the mountains, a narrow cut in 

the steeply upturned and folded Paleozoic rocks, to emerge into the 

great terraced valley that is the beginning of its long course through 

the Cretaceous rocks. The Boulder river, on the other hand, is a 

much smaller stream that heads in the snow banks about Haystack 

peak, and joined by numerous mountain torrents from the neighboring summits flows nortlrward through a narrow canyon with walls 

3,000 feet high, to join the Yellowstone in its great terraced valley 

about Big Timber.

THE YELLOWSTONE GLACIER.

The glacier occupying the mountain valleys of the Yellowstone has 

for convenience of reference been called the Yellowstone glacier. The 

ice stream had its source in the confluent ice sheets that covered the 

northwest portion of the National Park, and flowing northward overrode the lesser peaks about the boundary of that reservation and sent a 

great ice stream down the valley of the Yellowstone. This glacier, reenforced by a confluent stream from Bear gulch, completely filled the 

upper valley and exended far up on the mountain sides, completely 

covering such minor elevations as Cinnabar, Sphinx, and Dome mountains as it flowed northward to the low and broad valley below Yankee 

Jim. canyon. This valley it occupied as far north as Mill creek, a total 

length of 36 miles from the park boundary. The width varied from 

3 to 6 miles, and the .depth in Yankee Jim canyon and the valley 

above it was 3,000 feet. As the neve" fields of this great glacier were 

wibhin the Yellowstone Park they will not be discussed in this paper.

In both the upper and lower of these two valleys this trunk glacier 

received tributary streams of ice. In the upper valley an ice sheet 

crept down from the mountainous region to the east, coalescing with 

another stream of ice from the park that pushed northward between 

Sepulchre mountain and Electric peak and filled the valley of Eeese 

creek. In the lower valley the main glacier was reenforced by numerous 

tributary glaciers flowing westward down the great mountain valleys 

of Sixmile, Emigrant, and Mill creeks, whose united force deflected the 

northern end of the Yellowstone glacier westward against the foot-
CINNABAR VALLEY. 15

hills of the Gallatin range. The ue"ve" fields of these eastern tributary 

glaciers were the broad and high mountain summits of the Snowy 

range, each of the larger mountain gorges penetrating this rugged 

region, having been the bed of a glacier. The evidence shows that the 

ne"ve" fields of these tributary glaciers were of considerable extent and 

were confluent with those forming the head of the Boulder glaciers.

LIMITS OF GLACIATION.

In mapping the areas occupied by these ancient ice streams it has 

been found difficult to define the exact limits of the ice upon the mountains east of the Yellowstone, owing to the number of tributary glaciers and the gradual change from glacial to nonglacial topography, 

while the drift is generally of the same material as the rock upon which 

it rests. On the other hand, the drift deposits of the valley are readily 

studied, and the western limit of the drift is sharply outlined by the 

bowlders of gneiss and granite resting upon the rocky slopes of volcanic breccias. The gradually decreasing altitude at which this marginal drift occurs as we go northward from the park shofts a rapid 

thinning of the glacier north of Yankee Jim canyon.

CINNABAR VALLEY,

Both the Cinnabar valley and the surrounding mountain slopes present many interesting evidences of glacial occupancy.

Bear gulch and Sheep mountain. On the east the tributary glacier 

of Bear gulch has left a trail of rhyolite blocks from a hill some 8 

miles above its mouth, showing that the ice crowded around this 

corner of the mountain, occupied what is now the head of Eagle creek 

and merged into the main stream as it overrode the flanks of Sheep 

mountain. It is a noticeable fact that the slopes of this mountain are 

abundantly strewn with erratics, particularly about the base, where 

the slopes merge into the bench made by the basalt and travertine 

sheets. The foot of these slopes is somewhat heavily mantled with 

drift, the bowlders being of moderate size and consisting chiefly of 

gneiss and granite, Avith many of rhyolite from Bear gulch; this detritus is arranged in crescentric loops with small alluvial flats behind 

them. The bench at the base of the mountain slope is but mildly glacial and free from bowlders. A till-like material is found in spots, 

man tied by gravels, and alluvium from the mountain slopes has largely 

covered the original glacial deposits if any were present. Owing to the 

frequency of the small recent faults which have broken and disturbed 

the bench glacial evidences are largely obscured. Ehyolite drift from 

the bluffs of Bear gulch forms a train encountered between the bluffs 

and the ranches of Eagle creek, and none was found south of this road 

(i. e., between the wagon-road and Bear gulch). The erratics generally 

are gneissic, occurring in clusters, and very abundant between Eagle
16 GLACIATION OF THE YELLOWSTONE VALLEY. [uuLL.104.

creek and Bear gulch. A very considerable accumulation of massive 

bowlders upon the basalt bench north of the mouth of Bear gulch is 

supposed to be the work of the receding glacier.

Sepulcher mountain. The west side of the valley evidences the conflict of the ice streams from the Yellowstone canyon and the Gardiner 

with the lesser stream coming down Eeese creek, which by their union 

formed the trunk glacier of this valley. The upper slopes of Sepulcher 

mountain are littered with numerous erratics, the lower slopes in places 

mantled with glacial gravels and sands or carved into typical glacial 

hillocks by the abrasion.of the ice. The drift accumulations of the 

mountain flanks are most conspicuous within the borders of the park. 

West of Gardiner the slopes attract attention by their rounded, maminillary forms, which, upon examination, are seen to be the result of erosion and not due to a covering of drift. The stage road from Gardiner 

to Cinnabar crosses a typical portion of this area in which the volcanic 

breccia composing the hilly slope is but scantily covered by drift, yet 

the topography is strongly morainal in its contours.

The valley bottom. The immediate valley bottom contains much drift, 

which in the lowef levels is of course terraced by alluvial action. The 

town of Gardiner is built upon such a bo wider-covered terrace, the 

erratics being chiefly gneiss. Chadborn's ranch to the north is built 

upon a well-defined moraine of great granite bowlders that outline the 

northern limit of the Sepulcher mountain moutone"e forms. The valley 

bottom in this vicinity evidences various stages in the retreat of the 

ice sheet. North of Hoppe creek the stage road follows a depression 

with a level bottom some 125 yards wide between two ridges of bowlder 

drift.

In general the valley has been subject to consider able glacial erosion 

during the maximum extension of the ice, and the deposits of drift mark 

phases in the retreat of the ice. Mention should be made of the large 

deposits of glacial gravels forming kanie-hills about the debouchure of 

Eeese creek. The drift is all from, the head of this lateral valley and 

brought by a branch ice stream pouring down the valley from the Sepulcher-Electric divide. From Cinnabar station to Cinnabar mountain the valley bottom on the west is wholly alluvial.

Cinnabar mountain. The Cretaceous spur of coal-bearing rocks that 

terminates in the upheaved beds of Cinnabar mountain presents no 

special features of interest, though drift-covered hills of glacial gravels 

that accumulated at the base of Cinnabar mountain while the ice was 

crowding over its summit seem to prove that stagnant portions of the 

ice filled this place while the main current pushed through the gorge 

to the north or over the mountain top. Bowlders of gneiss and andesite resting upon the stratified beds prove that the ice passed over the 

summit.

From Cinnabar mountain to Yankee Jim canyon the course of the Yellowstone is northwestward, and that the northward-pushing glacier was
WEED.] CINNABAR MOUNTAIN AND BASIN. * 17

deflected by the high mountains northeast of the river is evidenced 

by the drift carried from the Cinnabar mountain. The mountain slopes 

on the east side of the river show considerable evidences of glacial 

abrasion, benching, and the usual erratic blocks, but were not studied 

with the same detail as those -to the west, which promised more definite and important results, but the drift shows that the ice overrode the 

slopes to a height of about 3,000 feet above the present stream.

The western side of the canyon, north of Cinnabar, to the gorge 

called Yankee Jim canyon, presents a different type of glacial erosion.

The present canyon of Cinnabar creek is a post-glacial cut in a bench 

of granite whose surface presents fine examples of glacial polishing 

and scoring. A short distance northward the lower slopes are formed 

of the breccias which have been eroded by the ice. Seen from the 

slopes of Dome mountain this hilly area presents a peculiarly mammilated appearance. The hills formed of dark volcanic breccia of 

augitic rocks which when traversed is found to form rough craggy 

masses with a generally hummocky topography, there being no drainage 

and sharp basins lying between. It is a combination of glacial topography with post-glacial settling or land slides. Glacial gravels cap 

many of the knobs, especially east of the road, but erratics are rare. 

A peculiar feature of the northern end of this area where it runs into 

the basin at the south end of Yankee Jim canyon, is the fact that these 

hills run into ridges which are prolonged by glacial gravel. This 

gravelly drift shows blue quartzite, granite, and many varieties of andesite, but no basalt or rhyolite could be found.

A peculiar, tarn-like lake occupies one of the peculiar depressions 

in this foothill area, but is not dammed by glacial gravels. The slopes 

above these hills form the flank of a small elevation known as Sphinx 

mountain, whose glaciated summit, capped by numerous erratics, is 

2,400 feet above the river. The andesitic breccias and basaltic flows 

forming the southern slopes of the mountain have been eroded by the 

ice into the characteristic knob and sink contours with very little small 

drift, though bowlders of granite with rarer erratics of sedimentary 

origin are abundant on flanks and summit.. The eastern slopes are 

somewhat benched, and the northern slope shows a considerable accumulation of detritus forming glacial hummocks resting upon the 

rocky flanks.

Cinnabarbasin. Cinnabar basin is an elevated mountain park drained 

by the northern fork of Cinnabar creek. The valley of the main creek 

is a narrow cut with rocky walls and presents no points of interest in 

this connection, though evidencing the extent of post-glacial erosion in 

the walls of its inner gorge. The basin on the other hand is a preglacial valley greatly modified by its occupancy by ice and filled by 

glacial detritus. Looking down upon it from the surrounding mountain walls its smooth contours, pockets, hummocks, and rounded knolls 

and sinks show very clearly the work of title glacier in producing the 

Bull, 104 2
18 GLACIATION OF THE YELLOWSTONE VALLEY. [BULL. 104.

present condition. Of the two streams which drain it the larger heads 

in a glacial amphitheater under the bold walls of the main summit of 

the range, and flows through a trenched channel; the other heading in 

a smaller mountain amphitheater, filled with hummocks of drift, 

meanders through a broad marshy area flanked by drift hills and gravel 

flats, and has not cut through the alluvium and drift which fill the 

valley bottom. These streams uniting form the north fork of Cinnabar 

creek. A transverse moraine has deflected this stream, where it joins 

Cinnabar creek, and forced the waters to cut a channel through gneiss, 

thus retarding the down-cutting of the stream above.

Transportation of boivlders to a higher level. The high mountain ridge 

that forms the western wall of Cinnabar basin was covered by the ice 

to a height of 8,000 feet, the drift terminating abruptly at that elevation. The bowlders of this locality evidence an interesting example of 

the transportation of material from a lower to a higher level. At 7,400 

feet the bowlder drift contains, besides the usual types of granite, 

gneisses, etc., many blocks of limestone and Dakota conglomerate, 

whose only source is Cinnabar mountain. None of these bowlders occur 

at lower levels, and as there is but one source it proves a movement of 

the ice over Cinnabar mountain westward. These bowlders are five 

and a half miles west of and 350 feet above their highest possible 

source. Bowlders of pink quartzite and shaly Cretaceous sandstone 

occur on these same slopes at a higher level. These bowlders furnish 

absolute evidence of the crowding of the glacier westward by the bend 

in the valley. As the constricted river gorge could hold but a small 

part of the glacier, the ice was^forced to override Cinnabar and Sphinx 

mountains and filled Cinnabar basin, leaving a record of its margin as 

high as 8,000 feet on the western slopes. These western slopes which 

were not ice covered in turn deflected the ice stream, which in its course 

northward gouged out the beautiful little glacial valley followed by the 

trail from Cinnabar basin to the lower Yellowstone. At the south end 

of this cut the hammocks are of glacial drift. Two lakelets occupy depressions in its bottom, being confined by drift, but detritus is not 

abundant, consisting of scattered erratics, mostly of gneiss, with a few 

of andesite upon the adjacent slopes of volcanic breccia. The northern 

end of the cut is occupied by a small stream called Teepee creek, heading in a lakelet fed by a clear spring of water. The creek is actively 

cutting down a gorge in the mountain side, but does not follow the old 

course of the ice, which here crowded around the shoulder of the ridge 

separating Cinnabar basin from Tom Minor.

YANKEE JIM OANYON.

Yankee Jim canyon presents a very perfect and striking example of 

the eroding power of ice and of glacial sculpture.1 It is a narrow gorge 

cut by the Yellowstone in metamorphic gneisses, through which the

1 A charming description is given by Sir Archibald Geikie; see Geological Sketches.
WEED.] YANKEE JIM CANYON EMIGRANT VALLEY. 19

river rushes in a torrent of beryl green quite unlike the placid stream 

above. The glacier which once filled this canyon and overflowed its 

walls has broadened it and rounded, planed, and polished its sides 

from bottom to top. The eastern wall, formed by the sides of a low, 

rounded knftb known as Dome mountain, shows striated surfaces and 

ice-worn bosses, dotted Avith erratics almost to its summit. On the 

west the slopes above the polished surfaces of the immediate canyon 

Avail are ice worn and are carved into typical glacial ridges and montonne'es, with a general bench structure to a height of 8,000 feet, or 

3,000 feet above the river. Indeed, knowing the activity of disintegrating agencies in a climate where frost is an almost nightly visitor 

during the summer months and the winters are long and rigorous, it is 

surprising to find these evidences so fresh.

Erratics of gneiss are conspicuous Avherever the surfaces have permitted their lodgment, and dot the ice-worn bosses at every altitude, 

so that it is certain that the glacier was 3,000 feet thick at this place 

and proves that this ancient glacier of the Yellowstorie was of greater 

magnitude than has been ordinarily supposed.

The extreme erosion at this point of its course by the old glacier was 

due no doubt to a considerable contraction in its width, coincident with 

a narrowing of the valley bottom more than one-half, whereby a large 

part of the ice was forced to rise upward and override the higher 

slopes.

The morainal ridges of drift, the ice-worn bosses, and the erratics 

in the sag east of Dome mountain prove that a considerable portion 

of the ice, unable to croAvd through the gorge, found an independent 

entrance into the broad lower valley of the YelloAvstone. The sag 

itself shoAvs considerable accumulations of detritus, forming benches 

and elongated ridges running north and south. Erratics Avere observed 

as high as 8,100 feet upon the spur east of this sag. Their absence 

above proves this to be the limit of glaciation.

EMIGRANT VALLEY.

Before passing through the lower canyon, the so-called gate of the 

mountains, to the broad and IOAV valleys of the lower course, the Yellowstone flows through a broad valley, encompassed by mountains upon 

every side, a grand and beautiful inter mountain basin, 30 miles long 

and from. 3 to 6 miles Avide. On the west the slopes rise gradually to 

the castellated crests of the Gallatin range; on the east the high pinnacle of Emigrant peak overshadoAvs the valley, while the spires of 

Mount Cowen and its neighbors form a serrated Avail, shutting in the 

northeastern part of the valley. Broad alluvial bottoms, with interosculating channels and islands bright with cottonA\Toods, mark the 

river's course. The broad terraces on either side are cut by numerous 

tributary streams issuing from their mountain gorges, supplying occasional farms, whose bright stretches of grain and tilled fields intensify
20 GLACIATION OF THE YELLOWSTONE VALLEY. [BULL. 104.

the contrast between the fertile valley and the barren wilderness of the 

surrounding mountain slopes.

The geological observations hitherto made in this valley led the earlier 

geologists to suppose it to be the bed of an extinct lake, and the lake 

beds preserved beneath a protecting sheet of basalt show that such was 

once the case. A later episode in the history of the valley, and one 

that has given it its present surface, was the extension of the Yellowstone glacier northward, filling the southern half of the valley and depositing the glacial detritus, covering the higher levels and the gravels 

of which the great alluvial terraces are built.

The glacial stream confined within the narrow gorge of Yankee°Jim 

canyon and the adjacent mountain slopes spread out and filled the 

broad bottom of this valley, depositing much of the detritus which the 

ice had transported from the mountains. These morainal accumulations are most interesting upon the eastern side of the valley, where 

considerable areas are covered by drift hills and karnes, with abandoned 

channels of subglacial streams, and a chain of morainal lakelets add 

their charin to this peculiar scenery.

Upon the west side the immediate valley bottom is formed of alluvial 

terraces and the detritus of streams from the mountains, while the 

adjacent slopes are bowlder strewn and marked by a very striking and 

peculiar system of terrace lines.

Mountain canyons. As the structural geology of the mountainous region to the east of this broad valley was studied by Mr. J. P. Iddings, 

I am indebted to him for notes upon the glaciation of the deep gorges 

which held large ice streams tributary to the trunk glacier of the Yellowstone. These glaciers pushing out and across the valley left their 

drift upon the extreme western margin of the glaciated area near Fridley's. All these mountain valleys show in their rounded slopes and iceworn rocks and their general broadening that they have been sculptured by the ice streams they once held. (See PL in..) That these streams 

were of considerable size and thickness, is proven by the height to which 

the ice-worn bosses and ice-borne erratics have been found upon the 

mountain slopes. At the head of Sixmile creek a granite bowlder was 

found resting upon volcanic rocks at a height of 9,500 feet, thus proving 

that the glacier not only filled the great amphitheater at the head of 

this stream,'but overrode its high encircling walls.

Morainal headings. The southern part of this great intermountain 

valley is covered with a superficial deposit of glacial drift that marks 

the area occupied by the ice. On the east side of the Yellowstone these 

morainal accumulations extend from the mouth of Yankee Jim canyon 

northward beyond the debouchure of Mill creek, interrupted only by 

the terraced drainage cuttings made by Sixmile and Emigrant creeks. 

As a whole this material is heaped into a tumultuous assemblage of 

knobby or mammillary hillocks with correspondingly sharp depressions, 

and the material is both unassorted and of kaine-like stratification.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

DUCK LAKE, A MORAINE-DAMMED SHEET OF 
WEED.] DUCK LAKE, 21

Morainal lakes. A noticeable feature of the topography of this part 

of the valley is a chain of lakelets lying in a well defined depression between the'baseof the mountains and the drift-strewn summit of the 

basalt table. The largest of these bodies of water is known as Buck 

lake (see PI. n), and, with its companion lakelets, belongs to the 

type of lakes due to darns of inorainal material. This is perhaps most 

plainly shown in the case of the middle lakelet whose scalloped lobate 

form is due to the fact that thela,ke fills several adjacent inorainal hollows. The drift is mainly small and partially assorted, forming typical 

kames.

East of these lakes a lateral moraine composed of quite large bowlders and more angular debris, largely of blocks 2 to 10 feet across, 

forms a prominent ridge running northward along the mountain side 

west of the stream tributary to Duck lake. It is the work of the ice as 

it spread out into the valley from the narrow bed of the canyon above 

and consists of fragments from the walls and slopes of Yankee Jim. 

canyon.

Duck lake itself is a pleasing sheet of dark blue water, oval in outline, and forming an agreeable change to the eye after traveling over 

the monotonous moraine. The water is somewhat opaline at the windward side, the northern shores being gravelly beaches, showing a high 

water Hue some 2£ or 3 feet above the present level of the lake (in 

September). At the south end the shores are muddy and form the termination of a somewhat extensive marshy bottom that fills the depression between this lake and the smaller body of water to the south. 

The large drift is much more abundant immediately north of Duck 

lake than it is farther away.

North of Duck lake the wagon road follows a shallow, alluvial flat, 

separated from the bed of Duck lake by a train of detritus brought down 

by small streams from the adjacent mountain slope. Beyond this flat 

the kames attain their most characteristic development, consisting of 

gravels and sand rudely assorted and forming hillocks 15 to 20 feet 

high, capped by cobbles and bowlderlets chiefly of gniess and separated 

by sharp sinks and kettle holes. The road follows a gentle grassy 

depression formed by a glacial stream running to the northwest. This 

channel once held a good sized stream whose waters were burdened 

with silt and sand, with which it built up the terraced sides of the present grassy draw. That it is not an old channel of Sixmile creek is 

evident from its situation and the fact that such a stream would not 

desert so well formed a channel, and, furthermore, by the presence of 

an area of hummocky drift hills separating this old creek bed from 

the present drainage channels of Sixmile creek.

Sixmile creek at present flows in its old bed. A newer channel, now 

dry, being found on a terrace above the present creek marked by a line 

of cottonwoods and evidently occupied for many years. The broad 

gravel flat which now carries the water has been made by a stream
22 GLACIATION OF THE YELLOWSTONE VALLEY. [BULL. 104.

much larger than the present creek, being in fact large enough to 

accommodate the Yellowstone itself. Between this channel and the 

basalt table to the west there is an area of morainal drift of some interest. A terrace about a quarter of a mile wide separates these moraiual 

hills from the immediate gravelly flat of the creek, and the moraine 

terminates in the rear of this terrace in a steep bowlder slope very difficult to climb. The summit of the moraine is fairly level, thickly 

strewn with basalt bowlders from the basalt sheet to the west, with 

occasional erratics of gneiss and limestone. The bowlders average 2 

to 3 feet in diameter and some 2 or 3 feet apart, resting upon smaller 

cobbly material. Small sandy benches occur occasionally, marking 

the site of small marginal streams. The north slope of this moraine is 

gently undulatory and knobby, while the southern slope is free from 

knobs and sinks, being a fairly level surface falling gently to the southAvest, toward the old glacial stream channel heading in the moraine 

near Buck lake and holding a small alkaline lakelet. There is a noticeable decrease in the size of the bowlders as we go westward over this 

moraine. Between Sixmile and Emigrant creeks the moraine is a very 

gently accentuated knobby area, the hummocks rising but a few feet 

high, with many sandy level areas and a general inclination to the west

of the entire area. ^

North of Emigrant creek the country is nearly similar to that just 

described, being but mildly morainal, the drift mainly under 12 inches 

in diameter and the larger bowlders being half buried in the smaller 

gravelly debris. Large bowlders are, however, frequently seen, with 

typical erratic form, striated sides, and beautifully polished, glistening 

surfaces. One fine iuterniorainic hollow was crossed that evidently 

served at one time as a temporary channel for a subglacial stream. 

This channel is 75 yards wide and heads in the drift hills. Beyond 

this channel the hummocks to the north are very rough and form a 

strip of country extending northward to a second subglacial channel 

heading in these hummocks and but 25 to 50 yards wide. Beyond 

here the hills are gently contoured, but typical in form and extend to 

the broad depression holding tfhe lakelet shown upon the map. This 

depression is part of the glacial flood plain. Beyond the lakelet a 

narrow strip of moraine extends parallel to the river, nearly to the 

mouth of Eightmile creek, being separated by a broad, sandy terrace 

from another area of moraiual debris, forming the huminocky lands 

lying at the base of the mountain slopes just south of the debouchure 

of Mill creek.

Basalt tables. The central part of the valley is occupied by a mesa 

of lake beds capped by basalt. This forms two separate areas, of 

which the largest is on the east side of the river and extends from 

Point of Eocks northward to the mouth of Sixmile creek. The table 

is about 6 miles long and 3 miles wide, its summit being about 250 feet 

above the surface of the river. The top of this mesa shows occasional
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVE

MOUTH OF EMIGRANT GULCH, SHOWING GLACIATED MOUNTAIN 
\vfiED.] BASALT TABLES OLD STREAM CHANNELS. 23

bare surfaces of the basalt generally as low domes of rock, 10 to 50 

feet wide and 50 to 100 feet long, the basalt being smoothed and striated, the groovings running parallel to the river. These domes of 

rock are generally scantily scattered with bowlders. The summit of 

this basalt table shows in its striated and polished surfaces and its 

low rnoutonne'e contour that it has been subjected to considerable glacial erosion. The retreating ice sheet has strewn its surface with 

bowlders and smaller glacial drift.

A thin mantle of drift, however, generally conceals the surface of 

the basalt. At the northern end the slopes are thickly scattered 

with bowlders of granite, black mica schist (rare) and occasional blocks 

of creamy white limestone, while a large proportion of the drift 

consists of basalt bowlders. The northern and western edges of the 

mesa are surmounted by sharp ridges of drift that rise 15 to 20 feet 

above the undulating sinks and swells of the general surface. A train 

of bowlders forms a ridge crossing the table to the southeast, and the 

general surface is paved with cobbles, the space between filled with 

small drift. In the central part of the table the bowlder ridges are 

well denned, running north and south with long narrow grassy depressions between. These hollows form a conspicuous feature of the summit; being filled with sand and alluvium and well grassed they form 

excellent pasture grounds .that extend for a mile or two south, running 

into a confused heaping of drift with knobs and with small and disconnected sandy flats between.

The character of the drift covering the basalt table has already been 

indicated in the preceding paragraphs. The large bowlders which are 

particularly abundant upon the northern portion of the table contain 

a considerable variety of material in which basalt, identical in all respects with the rock beneath the drift, predominates. Bowlders of 

gneiss and schists are abundant, and occasional blocks of white quartzite and of pitted paleozoic limestone are very conspicuous. The glacial 

stria) show a movement down the main valley.

Glacial stream channels. The existence of considerable streams flowing from the ice front is established by the many channels and sandy 

terraces associated with them, which cut across the drift hills or 

head within the morainal area. Besides these channels, formed by 

temporary streams flowing from the ice front, the streams from the 

east, notably from Sixinile and Emigrant gulches, have not always 

occupied their present beds, but in glacial times flowed in channels 

subsequently abandoned upon a recession of the ice or its complete 

disappearance. Thus the present wagon road from Findley to Chico 

follows a well defined and broad water course, cut in the sandy moraine and heading in a broad sandy plain at a level with the summit 

of the moraine and some 75 feet or so above the present bed of Emigrant creek. All traces of the stream channel end in this sandy
24 GLACIATION OF THE YELLOWSTONE VALLEY.. [BULL. 104.

terrace, which was the flood plain of the creek at the time the Emigrant gulch glacier had retired within the walls of the gulch. This 

channel was subsequently abandoned because silting up afforded an 

easier outlet for the water in the present course which, has been cut 

down and forms the present channel of the creek.

Two small channels produced by subglacial streams have already 

been noted in describing the moraine north of Emigrant creek, but 

such channels are numerous. One of the largest, a rather shallow 

waterway with sandy terraces cutting the glacial flood plain and running north parallel to the road from Chico to Mill creek. Two cut 

deeply in the moraine south of Elbow creek, and others occur in the 

moraine area south of Sixmile creek. The deflection of Sixmile creek 

to the northward into the valley is caused by the accumulations of 

drift.

The largest of these glacial stream channels is probably that which 

lies back of the basalt table, a broad river bed heading in a low divide 

in the moraine above Duck lake, and extending down to the Yellowstone opposite Boettlers. It opens out into the great alluvial or gravel 

flat of Sixmile and Emigrant creeks, above which the moraine ridges 

rise with steep scarpn slopes.

Another very marked channel lies east of this last and runs parallel 

to it, heading in a sandy terrace flat some 75 feet above and near the 

north end of Duck lake. This glacial (or -subglacial) stream channel is 

one-third of a mile wide in its broadest part, with flat sandy bottom 

showing no water channeling. Near Duck lake the side walls of the 

coulee show longitudinal ridges or embankment-like heapings of bowlders. The floor of the depression is usually entirely of sand, but as the 

head of the ancient channel is approached the sand becomes coarser 

and grades into fine gravel which in turn becomes larger nearer Duck 

lake. In the lower part of the coulee bowlders ate quite rare, but become more plentiful near the head. As is the case with the other 

ancient channels noted this one heads in sandy flat or plain in the 

moraine.

Drift deposits. Upon the western edge of the river there is only a 

narrow strip of valley between the river and the foothill slopes, and 

this is entirely occupied by alluvial terraces from Tom Minor creek to 

Big creek. Prom Daileys to the northern limit of the drift, near Eightmile creek, the moraine covers the higher portion of the valley bottom 

above the alluvial terraces, presenting the usual types of conical hills 

of drift with an abundance of bowlders, many sandy flats and deserted 

subglacial stream channels. As already stated, the margin of the drift 

is readily traced upon the volcanic breccias forming the bare rocky 

hillsides which inclose the valley on the west. On the ridge north of 

Eock creek there is a well defined drift-covered bench at 7,740 feet. 

On both sides of Big creek the upper limit of the glacial detritus is 

about 6,800 feet. North of here the elevation rapidly declines until
TERRACES. 25

west of Fridleys the drift covers the low triangulation hill, beyond 

which it is limited to the valley bottom.

Terraces. In the southern part of the valley these drift-strewn hillsides are characterized by a remarkable terracing of the slopes particularly prominent about the debouchure of Dry creek. The great terraces of Tom M inor basin and the equally definite terraces of Kock creek 

and Big creek, also lie within the limits of the drift and are coincident 

with the occupancy of the valley by the Yellowstone glacier. Several 

significant facts lead to this belief: These great benches are best marked 

where tributary valleys join the Yellowstone; they occur only upon the 

western side of the old glacier, and near its margin; they always occur 

within the bowlder-strewn area, and never above the limit of the drift, 

arid they are cut in horizontally bedded volcanic breccias. Tfie size of 

these benches will be appreciated by a look at the map showing their 

development about Big creek a locality where they attain a very prominent development. On the north side of Big creek such a terrace forms 

a beautiful flat-topped grassy open bench, a mile wide. The surface 

has a slight gradient toward Big creek, and also to the east, passing 

imperceptibly upward into the mountain slopes in the rear. Bowlders 

are very abundant upon the eastern portion of this bench, and on the 

slopes immediately above it, but are rare west of the first fork of Big 

creek. This fork and the one to the west, have cut deep trenches in the 

bench, exposing sections showing that it is formed of andesitic breccia 

covered by drift, the latter being seen to be as much as 100 feet thick in 

certain places. The bench is continuous eastward to the valley of the 

Yellowstone; seen from the higher slopes to the south it is a broad flat, 

with the slope above it faintly lined by two narrow terrace-like markings, of which the uppermost correspgnds to the upper limit of thegiacial 

drift. No such bench was detected upon the spur south of Big creek; 

but granite bowlders resting upon the basaltic volcanic breccia show 

that the upper limit of the drift has about the same elevation.

Similar benches are extremely prominent in the basin of Tom Minor 

creek, and occur, though of much less extent, in the sides of the valleys 

of Bock, Dry, and Stricklin creeks. The Kock creek benches, though 

less extensive than those of Big creek, bear a similar relation to the 

drift. At this place the uppermost bench is the best denned, and corresponds to the upper limit of glacial detritus. The surface is fairly 

level, with pit-like hollows and occasional knobby hillocks rising above 

it, the general surface being covered with line gravel and sands and 

occasional bowlders, in marked contrast to the bare, driftless slopes 

above. Below this bench the slopes show rugged steeps of breccia, 

proving considerable post-glicial erosion, though drift is abundant, 

both as bowlders upon well defined rocky benches and as ridges and 

groups of hills formed of glacial gravels. On the south side of Kock 

creek there is a narrow bench scoring the mountain slope and continues for several miles, though cut by drainage channels. This bench
26 GLACIATtON OF THE YELLOWSTONE VALLEY. [BOLL. 104.

marks the upper limit of glacial drift, 7,800 feet, and is generally emphasized by a ch ami el-like depression on its rear surface.

Striated valley slopes. Associated with the great terraces just mentioned is a wonderfully fine series of terrace lines scoring the slopes 

below the limits of the drift. Back of Dailey's thirteen beautifully 

marked steps can be counted on the slopes west of the valley as shown 

in Fig. 1. It is at once apparent that the"se terrace lines are not part of 

a system of lake terraces. Their lack of horizontality, their lack of relalation to other terraces puts this beyond doubt, and shows that they .owe 

their origin to some other agency, either the ice sheet itself or marginal 

streams. These benches occur about the debouchure of Stricklin creek, 

where the higher lines form prominent scorings upon the slopes. They 

are all grassed and show no precipitous scarp. Their connection with

Fid. 1. Glacial terraces of marginal area, valley of the Yellowstone (Geikie).

the great benches of Tom Minor, Big creek, etc., was a subject of inquiry, 

and it was found that the higher terrace lines about Dry creek follow 

the slopes around and run into the great benches of Big creek. Such 

at least appears to be the case when seen from the edge of the basalt 

table east of the river. The lower terrace lines do not show in the 

Big creek canyon, in fact would not be expected to, but the slopes 

about the debouchure of Big creek show definite and well marked terrace lines, only less prominent than those of Dry .creek. To the south 

the higher bench lines show very markedly on the slopes south of Big 

creek, though uneven and lacking the beautiful uniformity of the Big 

creek benches. The slopes up to 400 feet above the river are generally 

hummocky hills, of breccia', with intervening sinks, resembling in a general and distant view a mammillated surface, in which the hummocks 

are quite large. Granite bowlders are abundant, and occur up to 10 feet 

in diameter. North of Dry creek the losver benches fade out in these 

slopes, the higher lines, corresponding to the faint lines seen on the slope
WEED.] TERRACED SLOPES. 27

north'of Big creek, forming a prominent grassy bench above the mainmillated contours of the breccia foothills and below the steep mountain 

slopes. This bench expands into a ^-shaped area on the south side of 

Stricklin creek.

These strongly marked terraces, which form such prominent feautures 

of the slopes inclosing the valley on the west, have no counterpart on 

the east side, where the moraines show an entirely different phase of 

glacial activity.

While these terraced slopes characterize the southern portion of the 

morainal area west of the river, where the valley bottom is low and 

occupied by alluvial terraces, the valley widens out north of Bailey's, 

and the morainal drift covers a gradually lessening portion of the foothill slopes, until west of Fridley the margin of the drift lies at the foot 

of the slopes.

In general, the morainal areas of the valley bottom are similar to 

those found upon the eastern side of the valley. Rolling hummocks of 

unassorted drift predominate, while there are many ridges of moraiual 

gravel having a north and south trend with channel depressions 

between. There is a considerable variety of bowlder drift largely 

gneissic, but containing also some sedimentary material.

The basalt table of the eastern portion of the valley is represented 

here by much smaller and detached portions of the same sheet, also 

covering lake beds which, in this case, are shore deposits. This northern portion of the basalt sheet forms a narrow table north of Van 

Horn's, a mesa Avhose summit is a quarter of a mile broad, extending 

from Sheep creek north to the marsh back of Fridley. The level top 

is scantily strewn with drift, usually all small, only two large erratics 

being found, both at the extreme northern end. The drift is mainly 

andesitic, though white quartzite is prominent in the detritus covering 

the south end of the table. >

The northern part of the morainal area shows a somewhat prominent 

terracing of the surface in general, though the upper benches are quite 

rolling. Large erratics are not very abundant, and are generally, 

though not always, found on knolls formed of smaller bowlders. There 

are many sandy alluvial flats and shallow basin areas, having no connection, whatever with existing drainages. About a mile north of 

Fridley's the terrace bluff is cut by an old river channel, a distinctly 

marked waterway, with general northerly course and an elevation of 

170 feet above the present wagon, road. A morainal ridge with rolling 

surface lies between it and the terrace scarp to the east. Westward a 

bank of water-assorted gravel marks its borders. The surface of a 

higher terrace 230 feet above the river shows a drift moraine modified 

by water.

Foothill canyons. A most curiously interesting feature of the driftcovered area is the presence of transverse canyons cut in the breccias 

directly across the slopes of the foothills. Their constant relation to
28 GLACIATION OF THE YELLOWSTONE VALLEY. [uutL.104.

the ice margin suggests that they had their origin during the period 

of glacial occupany of the valley. They are of considerable length, 

sometimes presenting several miles of unbroken walls. Their general 

direction is a most striking anomaly in the general structure and topography of the neighborhood, for the canyons Cut across the slopes 

sometimes in apparent in difference to deeply trenched drains and rocky 

spurs alike.

In descending, the foothills which lie at the base of the Gallatin 

range west of Fridley and form the western boundary of tin's beautiful mountain valley, a remarkable tranverse cut or gorge is encountered 

just before reacliing the hummocky surface of the valley bottom. This 

gorge is cut directly across the slope in the rudely bedded volcanic breccias with their intervening sheets of basic lavas. The walls are generally 

sharply defined, vertical, or nearly so, and show fine exposures of the 

rocks above a sloping pediment of talus blocks. In height the wall 

varies considerably, but frequently rises over 100 feet above the bottom of 

the canyon. The width varies also, but is usually from 50 to 200 yards 

from wall to wall, the bottom being more or less narrowed by the talus 

slopes which encroach upon it, and in places completely cover it. One 

more or less continuous cut was followed from the mouth of the second 

gulch south of Eightmile creek, south about 5 miles to Stricklin creek. 

Sometimes there are two or even three parallel canyons, in which case 

the highest is the largest and longest.

A peculiarity of these canyons is that they can not be seen from the 

valley, and when approaching the foothill slopes would not be noticed 

even upon close inspection until actually encountered. They form admirably sheltered refuges for the cattle pastured upon the neighboring hills, and have in the past served the same purpose for bauds of 

bighorn and buffalo, both of which have been slaughtered here in great 

numbers, as is proven by the numerous skulls.

Only the very largest of the foothill stream channels cut across the 

upper canyon, while the smaller gulches open into it, the opposite wall 

being unbroken or marked by a slight depression. This peculiarity is 

best illustrated by giving my notes upon a portion of this canyon, 

which was followed for the purpose of ascertaining its extent and its 

origin.

Entering the north end of the gorge, at the mouth of the gulch south 

of Eightmile creek, it is at once evident that we are in a cut of most 

unusual structure. It is about 100 yards wide from wall to wall, the 

rocky ledges being 40 to 50 yards above its bottom, with sloping bases 

of talus loosened by frost from the vertical faces above.

The canyon bottom is fairly level between these talus slopes, and 

generally soiled and grassed, but varies much in width; at first it is 

narrow, some 25 to 30 yards across, but farther south it widens to 100 

yards or more, extending as far as the mouth of the first gulch, cutting 

the slopes and western wall. This gulch is the bed of a stream, now
WEED.] FOOT-HILL CANYONS. 29

dry. belonging to the normal drainage system of the foothills, and is 

the trunk of a ramifying system of deeply trenched little channels 

draining the slopes to the west, but all dry at this time of the year. 

The stream channel opens into the transverse canyon we have followed, 

but does not cross it, and in time of flood its stream must of necessity 

find its outlet through the canyon northward. Opposite the debouchure 

of this dry drainage way the east wall is unbroken, and about 100 feet 

high, a little less than it is farther north.

South of the lateral gulch just noted the canyon continues unbroken, 

but the walls approach nearer together, the bottom is filled with 

talus, and progress is difficult. The walls are here neither so high nor 

so precipitous as to the north. Half a mile to the south the walls 

recede, and the canyon bottom widens out to 150 yards, having a flat 

alluvium bottom, in the middle of which a rocky butte stands up some 

15 feet high, like an island, in the flat. A sag in the eastern wall, some 

10 feet above the alluvial flat, has at some time permitted the escape 

of the pent-up waters poured into this part of the canyon by a considerable gulch cutting the slopes a short distance west. It is this gulch 

which contributed the'alluvial material forming the flat. The main 

canyon cutting extends up to and runs into the mouth of this gulch a 

significant fact, if the drainage marginal to the ice sheet had anything 

to do with the cutting of this transverse canyon.

Following around this deflection of the canyon we observe that the 

foothill drain has not cut across the trausverse canyon, its east wall 

being here 200 feet high, but has deflected it.

South of this gulch the canyon, though continued the same direction, 

is detached from the part already followed, and opens out to the main 

valley by a sag in the east wall. To the south the talus has filled 

up the canyon bottom, so that there is a rise of 50 feet. The Avails 

are here only about 40 yards apart, and the talus forms inclosed basins 

of the canyon bottom. The west wall is a sheer face of breccia and 

basalt 125 feet high, with talus slopes overgrown with grass; the east 

wall is not so high, but as usually the case forms the highest part 

of a slope running gradually, often steeply down to the general slope 

of the inoraiual area. Here this slope Avas found to be cut by a smaller 

canyon parallel to and quite like the larger one Avhich Avas followed, 

though it'is but 25 feet deep and runs out in the knobby drift area to 

the north.

Throughout the length of the canyon so.far examined, some three 

miles, there is a noticeable absence of stream gravel in the canyon 

bottom, except Avhere quite clearly brought down by lateral gulches. 

Glacial drift is often entirely absent; sometimes occurs scantily in the 

canyon bottom, and very rarely Avas found ou the immediate slopes 

west of the canyon. The next gulch to the south is the third thus far 

encountered, and the channel of a stream draining a considerable area 

of the slopes to the west for several miles back, in which it has cut a
30 GLACIATION OF THE YELLOWSTONE VALLEY. [BULL. 104.

gorge 300 to 400 feet deep. At the mouth of this gulch the east wall 

of the transverse canyon is breached by a broad depression opening 

into the valley. To the south the canyon continues, but is rather narrow, and the walls, 100 feet or so in height, are flanked by much de"bris, 

often completely filling up the bottom of the gorge. About a mile to 

the south the canyon opens out into a flat some 200 yards, more or less, 

in diameter, the basin being separated from the main valley by a low 

sag in the east wall some 15 feet above the flat. South of this flat the 

canyon divides about a pillar of rock some 25 feet high and uniting 

continues, with walls somewhat diminished in height, to the first creek 

channel north of Strickliu creek, where it opens out into a gravel terrace 

with steep bowldery scarp 135 feet high. This dry creek is the largest 

drain thus far encountered, and it opens out into a well-defined alluvial 

cone, sloping gently to the east, and running into a flat that is part of 

an old river channel, and confined by morainal hills of drift, 25 to 30 

feet high, on the east. Curious to see if the transverse canyon continued farther south, the alluvial flat was crossed and a continuation 

of the same canyon found and followed to Stricklin creek.

Relations of canyons to drift. The relation of this transverse canyon 

to the glacial drift is most pertinent. It was noted 

First. That the slopes west of the canyon were bare of drift, and 

had not been covered by ice this was positively established5 in only 

one instance was any drift observed west of the cutting, and the 

bowlders formed a strip but a few yards wide.

Second. Drift is generally absent from the canyon itself and, if present, only in small amount.

Third. The slopes east of the canyon are heavily mantled with drift, 

both in the form of bowlders and as smaller material.

Fourth. This drift comes from the east, being gneiss and white talcose rock from the Snowy range, hornblende andesites, and sediuientaries.

Observations of the slopes east of the canyon were made at various 

points, and always showed the drift extending up to the very edge of 

the east wall of the canyon.

The larger drift was often found to be arranged in morainal ridges, 

running parallel to the canyon walls, and passing gradually into the 

more common knobs and sinks. As already stated, the slope east of 

the canyon is frequently trenched by shorter and smaller parallel depressions cut in the breccia. The morainal drift of the valley generally forms typical drift hills, rarely 25 to 40 feet in height.,

Origin of transverse canyons. After a careful study of these cuttings 

in the field I am still in doubt as to their origin. A recent faulting at 

first seemed most probable, and a resemblance to the fault fissures in 

the travertine and underlying basalt east of the river about Gardiner 

made this seem probable. Yet this type of canyon would not result 

from normal faulting, which would produce a single fault scarp. The
WEED.] GLACIAL FLOOD PLAIN. 31

bottom is, moreover, filled in a manner rather incompatible with this 

theory.

On the other hand the temporary character of streams flowing about 

the margin of ice sheet, scarcely warrants the belief that the canyon 

has been cut by such streams, even if aided by the drainages of the 

adjacent slope. The work necessary to cut down 100 or more feet 

across these transverse slopes, and through hard basalts and indurated, though easily eroded breccias, is not very onerous, and is easily 

performed to-day even by very small streams, but- seems nevertheless 

to require more time than the existence of marginal streams could 

supply.

Glacial flood plain. North of the limits of the drift, the valley bottom 

is filled with the glacial flood plain, largely terraced by the Yellowstone, but still retaining, areas of its original surface. This plain has 

an elevation of 150 feet above the Yellowstone and opposite the mouth 

of Eightmile creek is an almost absolute level, the upward slope 

toward the moraine being very faint, as shown by a hand level, which 

gave a rise of only 8 feet or so in a mile. This is perhaps the most 

typical part of the morainal apron to be found in the valley. It is 

a flat extending from Mill creek to the Yellowstone opposite Chicory. 

An old glacial channel runs into it from the south, and the plain extends as far as the hot spring near Chico. On the west side of the 

river the alluvial gravels of Eightmile and of Trail creeks have obscured in part the great morainal apron, but its level surface appears 

north of Chicory, forming the great bench crossed by the wagon road 

and above the railroad terrace. The most striking view of the termination of the moraine is obtained from this plain, near Haydeu the 

foreground, of level hay fields, with water courses intensified by low 

groves of willow j a plain beyond, extending to the abrupt slope of the 

moraine front, whose sharp crested line of hills forms the background. 

Approaching the moraine, the surface of the plain is seen to be covered 

with rounded and smooth cobblestones, evenly distributed at some distance from the moraine, but arranged in channels near the hummock 

hills.

The moraine front rises abruptly as steep hills, with bowlder strewn 

fronts, no bowlders being seen on the overwash plain. No sand is 

seen on the surface of these moraine hummocks. The wagon road up 

the valley enters the moraine before crossing the middle branch of 

Eightmile creek, and passes an interaiorainic hollow or channel, 250 

yards wide, between the two ranges of terminal moraine hills, a second 

chain of hills being crossed by the road before reaching the modern 

channel of Eightmile creek.

Alluvial terrraces. North of the moraine of the Yellowstone valley, 

and beyond the immediate apron forming the moraine front, the valley 

is filled with moraiual gravels, in which the river has cut well defined 

terraces, The best examples of river terracing occur within the morainal
32 GLACIATION OF THE YELLOWSTONE VALLEY. [BOLL. 104.

drift area, especially about Frid Icy. Immediately back and west of that 

settlement the valley presents series of alluvial terraces, the highest 

160 feet or so above the river, but the moraine forms well defined terraces, with rolling hummocky surface at 170,190, and 230 to 240 feet 

above the town.

Opposite the railroad station called Chicory there are three well 

marked river terraces at 25, 50, and 150 feet, respectively, the uppermost being the morainal apron or flood plain. The same terrace appears on the west side of the river, to the north of Eightmile creek.

In the lower valley, local, ice streams from Elbow, Barney, Pine, and 

Deep creeks formed moraines extending down their canyons and forming 

prominent ridges a.bout the debouchure of the creeks, particularly Pine 

creek, where the moraine comes down to the road. As a whole, however, this eastern side of the valley shows ,110 terracing, but is an 

apparently gentle, continuous slope from the base of the mountain 

down, to the river edge.

This lower valley is really very beautiful, with gra,nd mountains on 

the east, fertile farms, and. abundant water supply. Seen from a limestone knob standing up from, the plain near the inouth of Deep creek, 

the valley to the south is a flat, alluvial plain, a few groves of cottonwoods marking the river's meandering course, and lines of trees showing where the plain is crossed by tributary streams from the mountains. 

The valley bottom slopes up from the river on the east side almost imperceptibly, till 1,000 to 1,200 feet above the Yellowstone, the slope really 

being formed by adjacent alluvial cones. At the foot of the mountains 

a heavy growth of pine timber darkens the slopes, extending up the 

mountain sides as far as the trees can obtain foothold, and dotting the 

rugged buttresses and. crags of the lower part of this "Bough-enough" 

range.

The alluvial cones or foothill slopes show no benches nor definite 

morainal ridges save tha.t already noted at Pine creek. They are without doubt largely formed of morainal gravels washed down when small 

local glaciers occupied the mountain gorges. Between Pine and Deep 

creeks these alluvial trains with definite morainal ridges reach far up 

into the mouths of the canyons. Where Deep creek debouches from 

the mountains the slopes show several well defined benches formed of 

great granite bowlders; but the benches do not extend more than onesixth ot a mile beyond the canyon, running out in the uppermost part 

of a perfect alluvial cone.

The high mountains east of the lower valley are deeply trenched by 

narrow canyons that are almost free from glacial detritus. This is 

easily explained by the torrential, character of the drainages which 

carried the debris down and banked it up at the mouths of the canyons 

in the high bowlder benches just noted. These fade rapidly into the 

heads of steeply sloping broad cones of alluvial gravels and long wash 

slopes.
WEED-1 AREA GLACIATED. 33

On the west side of the river the valley bottom is well terraced and 

bounded by gentle hills in which there are uo large streams. These 

slopes are generally bare and grassy, occasional pines emphasizing a 

rocky outcrop or defining the basin at the head of some small dry 

drainage way.

Below the valley the river flows between steep rocky walls of upturned sedimentary rock, showing a most beautiful section of the 

Paleozoic beds. The river is cutting down its bed slowly at present, 

and flows in a number of interosculating channels, separated by numerous islands green with grain or covered by groves of stately cottonVoods.

Discussion of evidence. It is apparent from an inspection of the 

accompanying map, upon which the outline of the drift has been indicated, that the glacier which occupied the valley bottom, great as it 

was, and coming from that great center of dispersion, the Yellowstone 

park, was a very local ice stream. Yet its influence upon the topography, and, to some extent, the scenery of the area covered by it, warrants this extended account of its work.

In the upper mountain valley the glacial detritus is very small in 

amount, in fact only insignificant deposits have been left in certain 

sheltered positions, though the retreating ice dropped bowlders pretty 

generally over the entire area covered. The work of the ice in this 

part of the field was mainly that of erosion. The amount of this 

erosion it is impossible to tell. Upon the granites and gneisses the 

ice has left an unmistakable record of its power to plane and polish, 

but the volcanic breccias show only the broader features of the erosion 

performed by ice, the rock not being suitable for the preservation 

of the finer features of such work, but probably yielding somewhat 

readily to the plucking action of the ice.

In the lower valley we have direct evidence of an advance of the 

trunk glacier as far north as Fridley, in the glacially planed surfaces 

of the basalt sheets found in the center of the valley. It is supposed 

that horizontal rock layers, such as these, do not present the most 

favorable conditions for glacial erosion and striation, yet these surfaces 

afford well preserved evidences of both in their low, rounded, and 

polished domes of rock, and their north and south stria3, which must 

have been formed by a somewhat thick sheet of ice moving north ward. 

In support of this we have the presence of basalt bowlders, undoubtedly from this valley sheet, in great abundance, north of the eastern 

table. These bowlders are generally well glaciated, for the rock being 

very hard and resisting weathering well, preserves such traces in an 

excellent condition.

As these bowlders occur for several miles northward from the basalt 

table, and at elevations almost equal to that from which they come, it 

is evident they have been plucked and carried for ward beneath the ice, 

they form further and confirmatory evidence that the ice stream, 

;Bull, 104 3
34 GLACIATION OP THE YELLOWSTONE VALLEY. [BULL. 104.

thinned as it must have been at this point, was still capable of doing a 

considerable work. It is evident that these basalt bowlders, like those 

torn and transported from Cinnabar mountain, originated and were 

transported wholly beneath the ice, and were not frost-riven fragments from peaks and aretes projecting above the ice. They thus 

afford a demonstration of the efficiency of the ice stream as an erosive 

agent. It should be remembered in this connection that the fall of 

the valley is only some 200 feet from the mouth of Yankee Jim canyon 

to the extreme border of the drift, some 18 miles, and that the glacier, 

crowded between the mountain slopes and in the gorge of Yankee Jim 

canyon, expanded out to at least twice that width in this broad valley. 

The quartzite drift and limestone bowlders found on the basalt tables, 

may evidence a pushing westward of the tributary glacier of Emigrant 

creek, following a recession of the valley glacier. At any rate the absence of these forms of drift south of this part of the valley is certainly 

significant. It is to such an advanee that we must ascribe the morainal heaping on the eastern basalt table, though the ridges and accompanying intervening channel-like vales may conform indirection to 

the movement of the ice stream, as has been in the case in the ridge 

moraine of the Boulder glacier. It is believed that the great benches 

or terraces of Big creek, Bock creek and Tom Minor creek are not of 

glacial origin, and that the coincidence of the drift limit with their 

borders possesses no especial significance. The narrow bench lines 

striatiug the slopes about the mouths of Stricklin and Dry creeks, are 

in part at least (see Fig. 1) the work of streams marginal to the ice.

THE BOULDER GLACIERS.

General description. The mountainous area immediately north of the 

Yellowstone Park and bounded by the Yellowstone river on the west 

and north is an alpine region abounding in grandly beautiful scenery. 

It is characterized by a great plateau of Archean gneisses, deeply 

trenched by the many streams which have their sources in the snow 

banks and lakes of their summits, and by high peaks of volcanic rocks 

whose peculiar erosion adds pleasing variety to the types of mountain 

scenery afforded by the limestones to the north and the Archean masses 

on which they rest.

This block of mountains was very generally covered by ice during 

the period of glaciation, which sent ice streams down the principal 

gorges and mountain valleys. Both the plateau summits and these 

mountain canyons present undoubted evidences of the work of the ice 

in producing the present configuration of the surface.

To the northward there are two ice streams occupying the principal 

valleys, those of the Boulder and its tributary, the West Boulder. The 

path of these glaciers and the mountain area in which they originated 

present us with very interesting and typical examples of alpine glaciation.
WEED.] THE BOULDER GLACIERS. 35

The principal stream draining this alpine area is the Boulder river. 

Heading in the many lakelets which lie nestled in the mountain basins 

about Haystack peak, the stream flows rapidly through a narrow gorge 

which it has cut through the granites in past glacial times to the point 

where its volume is augmented by a considerable stream called Bridge 

creek. From here northward it flows in a bo wider- choked channel 

through the great canyon of the Boulder, whose glistening walls of polished gneiss rise 3,000 feet high on either side. For the last few miles of 

its course through this impressive gorge the stream meanders somewhat 

slowly through a network of channels bordered by dense growths of 

spruce and fir, with thickets of brushwood; then quietly glides through 

boggy meadows past the cottonwood-covered islands at the gate of 

the mountains. Immediately above the Natural Bridge the stream 

flows in a limestone bed, in which it soon cuts a rapidly deepening 

gorge as it flows northward in a series of rapids and cascades to 

disappear in a snowy white feathery fall of 25 feet into the tunnel 

of which the Natural Bridge forms the portal. Emerging a hundred 

yards to the north and 100 feet below, the stream falls into a tranquil pool at the head of a gorge that is a mile or so long and has limestone walls 100 feet high. The roof of the first short tunnel is a dry 

river bed, the floor of a gorge that is a continuation of the picturesque 

cutting above the Natural Bridge. The numerous potholes and

worn ledges show that the river must flow over this channel in time of 

flood, to fall over a vertical wall into the pool 100 feet below. The 

beautiful canyon cut in a low limestone anticlinal north of this is, however, immediately deserted by the river, which at once enters a tunnel 

in the western wall, only to emerge at the northern, end of the canyon. 

That this gorge is occasionally occupied by the river is attested by the 

driftwood and gravel in its bottom ; but the great slopes of talus, where 

firs GO feet high are growing, show that such occupancy is but temporary.

The valley of the Boulder begins at the north end of this deserted 

river canyon, and is cut in the Cretaceous sandstones and shales, resting upon the steeply upturned Paleozoic limestones which flank the 

Archean gneisses, and whose upturned ledges form the end of the 

canyon. This valley is about three-fourths of a mile wide, and flanked 

by walls of Cretaceous rocks, a few hundred feet high on either side. 

In this upper valley the river peacefully meanders in graceful curves 

and ox-bow loops, through broad alluvial flats covered by cottonwoods, 

until it is joined by the West Boulder. Here as it leaves the morainal 

drift the valley immediately broadens out to a nearly uniform width 

of a mile, and the bottom lands and terrace flats are of greater extent 

and generally occupied as farms. In this part of its course the river 

flows more rapidly, dashing against the many great bowlders which fill 

its channel, or cutting the bluffs of volcanic breccia out of which the valley has been carved farther northward.
36 GLACIATION OF THE YELLOWSTONE VALLEY. [BULL. 104.

This lower valley is extremely beautiful and picturesque; its softer 

contours and bright green slopes being in pleasing contrast to the wilder 

and grander scenery of the upper part of the river's course. The walls 

to the west are often picturesquely pinnacled and buttressed by the 

erosion of the breccia, while on the east of the stream are broad and 

charming alluvial terraces. A broad and distinctly cut bench scores 

the slopes of the east, and runs into a broad gravel covered terrace, 

which at the mouth of Cherry creek is 250 feet above the river. It 

forms the beginning of the terrace system of the Yellowstone through 

which the Boulder has cut its way to join that stream in the valley 

about Big Timber. In this lower part of its course the stream is bordered by a great terrace formed of flats of bowlders and gravel, brought 

down by the stream from the morainal drift of its upper course.

Like most mountain streams the river lias a descent so great that it 

has removed and carried down the greater part of the morainal debris 

which choked its course, a work that is still in progress.

Nere fields. It is impossible to define the ne"ve fields of this region 

because the summits of the high plateau, over 10,000 feet above the sea, 

show glaciated surfaces which can not be differentiated from those found 

at lower elevations where there is undoubted evidence of true glacial 

movement in the general topographic relations, and where the summits and mountain basins show morainal accumulations in sheltered 

nooks that have undoubtedly been left by the shrunken remnants of 

the greater glaciers. These summits are characterized by an abundance of lakelets occupying rock basins, or occasionally held by dams of 

morainal material.

The gorges which head in these basins and amphitheaters, are typically glacial in form and show good examples of ice scoring when they 

are cut in tlie gneisses. Upon the divides and ridges at the heads of 

the gorges, bowlders are frequently found as instanced at the head of 

Sixmile creek, where a gneiss erratic, a foot in diameter, rested upon 

volcanic breccia, at 9,400 feet in a position which it could only have 

reached by transportation across an intervening valley several hundred feet deep. It is significant as evidencing a general movement 

northward of the ice sheet covering the central portion of the range as 

well as the more common movements down the mountain gorges.

The observations of Mr. Iddings, by whom the general geology of this 

mountain tract was studied, showed that glaciated surfaces prevail 

about the heads of all the more important drainages the slopes being 

characterized by glacial striae, running away from the divide and down 

the valleys.

My own observations show similar glaciated areas at the head of the 

Boulder about Haystack peak. Haystack basin, a mountain-top ter. 

race, shows beautifully glaciated surfaces of diorite with local drift 

deposits and occasional erratics from the neighboring peaks. Two 

glaciated lakelets make this basin an attractive camp. The slopes
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN NO. 10+ PL. IV

GLACIATED WALL OF BOULDER CANYON, SHOWING OCCUPANCY OF ENTIRE CANYON BY ICE.
CANYON OF THE BOULDER. 37

of Haystack, crossed by the trail from the gold mines, show good examples of glaciated ledges roughened by plucking.

Canyons. From the Haystack mines northward to Bridge creek, the 

canyon is decidedly rugged, with a terraced bottom such as is common 

in the glaciated canyons of the Sierra Nevada. The adjacent slopes 

are rugged, and though showing well glaciated surfaces lack the general 

rounding so prominent in the canyon farther northward, and are definitely though irregularly benched. These surfaces are barer than those 

to the north, and apparently more freshly glaciated. The slopes have 

been bared by avalanches, whose paths are plainly marked by areas 

of devastation, in desolate contrast to the flower-covered opens or the 

picturesque pine groves of the neighboring slopes. The stream flows 

through a channel, very narrow, steep and rocky; there are no alluvial 

flats, though well-wooded benches covered with talus extend along the 

canyon bottom.

The first and in fact the largest open or park of the canyon, called 

Hicks park, is situated about ten miles below- the mines. The stream 

leaves its rocky bed a few miles below this and flows thereafter over a 

bed of bowlders and moramal debris filling the valley bottom. In fact 

the quantity of debris left by the retreating glacier is so great that the 

stream, notwithstanding its steep descent, has been unable as yet to 

clear it out. Below Hicks park the canyon walls are much nearer 

together than farther north and show beautifully glaciated inoutonueed 

surfaces. (See Plate IV.) Considerable morainal accumulations fill the 

canyon bottom at the mouth of a large stream from the west, the open 

hills being known as Lick park. Two lakelets fill hollows in an old 

river channel in this moraine, and sharp ridges of debris fill the bottom. 

Below this point the canyon walls recede, and the glacial U shape is 

very prominent.

This canyon of the Boulder is extremely disappointing to the traveler. The walls below Lick park, though rising to great altitudes, 

3,000 feet and more above the stream, are receding, generally wooded, 

and do not fulfill the promise of rugged beauty given by the entrance 

to this great gorge. This is no doubt largely due to the general roundness caused by glacial erosion. The bosses of rock in the canyon 

bottom and the upper walls alike show glacial rounding and polishing 

shown in PI ate IV, and the resulting smoothness is a disappointment so 

far as scenic beauty is concerned. The limestone slopes at the mouth 

of the canyon and about the Natural Bridge show the resuifc of the 

glacial erosion of sedimentary rocks. From here northward the ice 

has filled the valley trough and overflowed the walls covering the 

adjacent slopes. Its margin is easily defined by the rather heavy 

deposits of drift and debris, but it is evident that there was little, if 

any, erosion of these surfaces, for the ledges of limestone show no 

abraded surfaces, nor does the drift farther north contain fragments of 

these rocks. This failure to erode the sedimentary rocks is the more
38 GLACIATION OF THE YELLOWSTONE VALLEY. [BULL. 104.

remarkable since the ledges dip at an angle of some 30° in the direction of the movement and the alterations of shale and sandstones have 

brought the ledges of harder rock into bold relief as hogback ridges.

Moraines. In this lower part of its course the river has removed 

most of the morainal de"bris from the valley bottom, and it is only upon 

the surfaces above the valley wall that the glacial debris forms noticeable morainal heapings. These extend northward to the mouth of the 

west fork of the river. <^

Notable morainal heapings occur on the East Boulder in its upper 

mountain valley, but present no claims to novelty. A high monoclinal 

wall prevented their extension northward into a basin filled by glacial 

gravel sands, an attractive area, upon which the white settlers look 

covetously. It is a broad, open basin, the center being a nearly level 

gravel terrace through which the streams heading in the mountains to 

the east have cut down some 100 feet without reaching bed rock. To 

the south the slopes are not glacial, the limit of the drift being about the 

edge of this alluvial basin. From here to the mouth of the east fork the 

drift covers the lower slopes east of the stream, but does not surmount 

to rocky ledges of Cretaceous sandstone outcropping above. The area 

between the East fork and the Boulder is alow triangular doab heavily 

covered by drift. A scar made by the river shows in one place a thickness of 50 feet of stratified sand and gravel, overlaid by drift, but 

erratics are rare.

The glacier that occupied the valley of the West Boulder did not extend as far northward as that of the main stream, and ends just north 

of the point where the McLeod wagon road crosses the stream.

The ice stream which filled the valley of the West Boulder overflowed the walls of this valley, and left its morainal debris to mark its 

limits on the adjacent slopes. This drift forms a narrow belt, in general parallel to the stream, resting upon the eroded surfaces of the upturned and flexed beds of the upper Cretaceous. Where it is crossed 

by the McLeod road near its northern termination, it shows the usual 

knob and sink topography of these moraines, the hillocks of the large 

drift, the sinks, often the beds of dried ponds. The bowlders average 

3 to 5 feet in diameter. This part of the moraine shows water channels, 

a feature that is absent from, the moraine on top of the bluffs upstream. 

On the east side of the river the moraine terminates in a considerable 

accumulation of debris forming a tumultuous assemblage of hummocky 

knobs $iid sinks, the material being quite coarse and but little rounded, 

and manifestly largely from, the surface of the ice. The summit of this 

moraine is formed of some ten parallel bowlder ridges, with grassy, 

bowlderless troughs between, some 25 to 30 feet wide.

The moraine upon the west side of the river presents few points of 

interest. Back of the " Blue Kim " cliffs it forms a considerable lakelet by damming the natural slopes, and its margin is very sharply de> 

fined upon the Laramie sandstones. As a rule the surface of this
WEED.] TERRACES. 39

moraine is very rough, the drift varying greatly in size, and including 

many large blocks principally of granite, gneiss, a.nd schist. Near the 

mouth of Davis creek the drift contains abundant bowlders of limestone and of conglomerate, but these rocks do not extend more than a 

mile north of their outcrops. Immediately back of the "Blue Rim" 

cliffs there is a moraine flat 200 yards wide at the top of the bluff, and 

back, of this the usual hummocks 'prevail.

The country east of the river is very generally heavily man tied by 

moraiual debris for some distance back from the edge of the bluffs. 

The table-land south of the McLeod road shows a fine alluvial area 

that is very fertile, owing to the damming back of the drainage by the 

moraine. The moraine itself is here very rough, and dotted with 

eight lakelets. Further south this character is preserved to the mouth 

of the mountain canyon, corresponding to the outcrops of the Carboniferous rocks. At the mouth of this grandly picturesque mountain 

gorge the canyon bottom is choked with drift and the stream is yet 

cutting down through the drift, and has at some late date formed a lake 

immediately above the mouth of Davis creek, whose grassy flats form 

a fine hay ranch.

Terraces. Although it will be seen from this account of the morainal 

- accumulations of the Boulder, and its branches that the amount of 

debris is considerable, yet it is small compared with the erosion which 

the ice has accomplished. In fact, the accumulations of the West 

Boulder, though not extending so far northward, are greater than 

those of the main stream. The question at once arises what has 

become of the eroded material 1?

Although these glaciers had a length of 10 to 20 miles, there are no 

great morainal embankments to show their former magnitude, such as 

abound in the Wind Kiver mountains and the Hoback ranges south 

of the park. The reason is perhaps to be found in the great terraces 

of gravel that border the Yellowstone. The lower course of the 

Boulder river is marked by terraces of assorted drift, but the narrowness of the valley lias not favored the preservation of the great trains 

of debris which undoubtedly were carried, down the valley from the 

termination of the glacier. The larger part of this material was 

probably swept northward by the flooded stream, and helped to build 

the broad and extensive terraces of the Yellowstone. It should be 

noted, however, that there is a considerable terrace on the east side 

of the Boulder, corresponding in level to the great upper terrace of 

the Yellowstone, south of Big Timber. It is a very level area about 

a mile across, in greatest extent, sloping to the north downstream, 

covered by well rounded cobbles and gravel of gneiss, limestone, shale, 

conglomerate, and other rocks found to the south. Thia terrace is, 

however, but part o± the great system that forms so prominent a feature 

of the piedmont country of this region and record an elevation and 

erosion, subsequent to the maximum of glaciation.
40 GLACIATION OF THE YELLOWSTONE VALLEY. [BULL. 104.

The Boulder glacier was the usual type of mountain ice stream, 

common in the Boeky Mountain region south of the limit of the great 

Cordillera glacier described by Dawson. It differs but slightly from 

those that streamed outward from the deep-cut gorges of the Crazy 

mountains, where the source of supply was small and local.

Further studies are in progress in other parts of the Cordillera, from 

the Canadian line southward, and also of the isolated groups of mountains, the Cmzies, Highwood, and others that form such striking features of the plains country east of the main ranges. It is believed that 

the results will contribute much of value to the history of the Pleistocene in this region and throw light upon some of the little understood 

problems that confront the geologist.
INDEX.

Page, 

Alluvial terraces and cones................ 31-33

Bear gulch, glaciation in................... l.j-lG

Big creek, glacial terraces on .............. 26

Boulder river glaciers...................... 34-40

Bowlders transported to higher levels...... 18

Canyons in the foothills of glacial origin... 27-31 

(Jhicory, terraces near ..................... 32

Cinnabar basin, glncinlion in ............'.. 17-1.8

Cinnabar creek, glaciation on .............. 17

Cinnabar mountain, glaciatiou on .......... 10-17

Cinnabar valley, glaciation in.............. 15-18

Cones, alluvial............................. 32

Deep creek, glaciation on .................. 32

Drift in Emigrant valley ................23, 24-27

Dry creek, glacial terraces on ............. 25,20

Duck lake ................................. 21

Eiglitmilo crook, glaciatiou on............. 28, 31

Emigrant valley, glaciation in ............. 10-34

IFridley, river terraces near. .y............. 31-32

Glacial canyons in. the foothills............ 27-31

Pago. 

Glacial flood plain ......................... 31

Glacinl stream channels.................... 23-24

Glacial stria>............................... 23

G-laciation, limits of........................ 15

Hague, Arnold, cited ...................... 13

Iddings, J. P., acknowledgment to ........ 20

Lakes, moraiual............................ 2l4fi2

Moraines ...................-20,21-22,31,32,118-39

N6v6 fields................................. 15,36

Pine creek, glaciation on................... 32

llock creek, glacial terraces on ............ 25

Sepulcher mountain, glaciatiou on ......... 1C

Sheep mountain, glaciation on.............. 15

Sixmile creek, glaciatiou on ............... 21-22

Striie, glacial .............................. 23

Stricldin creek, glacial terraces on......... 25,2G

Sphinx mountain, glaciation on............ 17,18

Terraces and benches.................23-27, 31-32

Yankee Jim canyon, glacial action in ... .18-19,20

Yellowstoue glacier described ............. 14

41