286 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION 



Mr. Huntington reports records of climatic oscillations shown, not 

 only in these moraines, but also in the valley terraces and erosions, 

 and considers them members of a group of S3^mpathetic glacial 

 phenomena. 



Professor Davis noted along the northern edge of the Kopet- 

 dagh, the mountains bordering the plains east of the Caspian sea, 

 and in the Eastern mountains, evidence of a longitudinal disloca- 

 tion, accompanied by great block uplifts, formed apparently after 

 the wearing down of the mountain masses to a peneplain and pre- 

 ceding an active dissection of the elevated mass. This dislocation 

 had been already observ^ed by Muschketof , who states that it extends 

 far along the edge of the Kopet-dagh. 



These block uplifts, by lowering the baselevel, caused a remodel- 

 ing of the mountains, and have left their record on the lowland 

 plains, which they have helped to create, by the vast amount of 

 material poured out on them by the eroding streams. 



The block uplifting and the tilting being correlated with the 



growth of the alluvial Ferghana lowlands, and the relation of the 

 glacial expansions to the valley cuttings in the Trans- Alai range 

 being clearly recorded, it becomes a matter of great interest to corre- 

 late these Quaternary events of the Trans- Alai valleys with those of 

 the Alai, and the growth of the plains with the progress of human 

 occupation. 



Mr. R. W. Pumpelly studied independently a profile from the 

 Sirdaria southward across the two mighty snow and ice ranges, the 

 Alai and Trans- Alai. He found clear evidence of two long sepa- 

 rated glacial epochs recorded in extensive moraines and on the 

 Pamir in apparently corresponding high shorelines around Lake 

 Karakul. These glacial epochs he has correlated with orogenic 

 movements of the Trans-Alai, there being a definite relation between 

 the glacial trough bottoms of the two epochs and the present stream 

 floors. Of the Alai range, he found that there had been a block 

 uplift followed by a block tilt, both with a dislocation through the 

 border of the lowland plains to the north, and leaving their records 

 in alluvium capped hills and terraces along the valley sides and in 

 the dragging up or tilting of the fluvial sediments or river " fans " 

 on the lowland borders. These movements he has correlated with 

 the glacial geology, making the block tilt an interglacial event. 



It is not impossible that, by extending the study of glacial records 

 from the Central Asian ranges through the Elburg and Caucasus, 

 it may be practicable to correlate Asiatic and Alpine glacial events ; 



