REVIEWS. 199 



in the light of one who has opened the realms of the sea to be explored by 

 the scientific man. We shall think of his name when we come in sight of 

 the ocean's broad expanse ; and, finally thanking him sincerely for thus 

 unveiling the great wonders of the deep, we conclude. 



Western Himalaya and Tibet. A Narrative of a Journey through the 

 Mountains of Northern Indian during the years 1847-48. By Thomas 

 Thompson, M.D., F.R.S., &c. London : Lovell Reeve. 8vo. Price 15s. 



Aided, as the author fairly acknowledges in his preface to have been, by 

 Cunningham, Strachy, Hooker, and Winterbottom — able men and well- 

 known travellers — we cannot but expect much from his work. He appears 

 to have paid attention to physical geography. He points out well, in his 

 first chapter, the optical deceptions which have induced the laying down 

 on our maps of mountain chains which have no real existence. As he 

 proceeds, he recounts the most remarkable plants which fell under his 

 notice, giving many interesting particulars as to their distribution, modes 

 of growth ; he notices the Prangos and other useful vegetable productions, 

 and particularly the Coniferas, the occurrence of the Pinus deodara, a tree 

 which is likely to prove so important an addition to the aboriculturists of 

 this country. He records the effect of elevation on the Flora in various 

 places, in some of which an almost European character consequently arises. 

 Dr. Thompson differs from the venerable Humboldt in supposing that the 

 Himalaya was thrust up from a vast fissure by a sudden effort ; on the 

 contrary, he considers that he saw evident traces of gradual elevation. He 

 states — 



" I could not find in the structure of the mountains around Simla, any con- 

 firmation of the view entertained by Humboldt of the sudden elevation of the Hima- 

 laya out of a vast fissure in the external crust of the earth. However plausible 

 such a view might appear when the Himalaya is contemplated as a whole (on a 

 map), without any portion of its extent being under the eye, I found it, on the 

 spot, quite impossible to conceive in what way, after such a sudden elevation, any 

 power, in the least analogous to existing forces, could have excavated out of the 

 solid rock those numerous valleys, so various in direction, so rugged in outline, and 

 so vast in dimensions, which now furrow the mountain mass. 



" On the contrary, the conclusion has been forced upon me that these mountains 

 have emerged extremely gradually from an ocean, of the existence of which, at very 

 various levels, the most evident traces are, I think, discoverable. The present 

 configuration of the surface must, I do not doubt, have been given to it during 

 periods of rest, or of very slow elevation ; the action of the sea upon submerged 

 rocks being so very superficial that no denudation takes place at any great depth. 

 During the period of emergence of the Himalaya, from the great length of the pre- 

 sent valleys, which extend between parallel ranges far into the interior, the coast 

 must have borne a strong resemblance to that of Norway at the present day — nu- 

 merous promonteries projecting far into the sea, and separated from one another 

 by narrow and deep bays.'' 



