130 THE DESICCATION OF LATER GEOLOGICAL TIMES. 



Evidence of similar character in regard to past and present desiccation 

 may be gathered in abundance for regions adjacent, on the east, to those to 

 which our attention has just been directed. The diminution of the lakes in 

 the closed-basin region of Northwestern India, Western Thibet, and Turkes- 

 tan, has been repeatedly noticed and described by scientific writers within 

 the past few years. For instance, Hermann von Schlagintweit, in an article 

 entitled "Investigation of the Salt Lakes in Western Thibet and Turkestan," 

 says : " In all portions of High Asia, both south and north of the main water- 

 shed, there are numerous places where the former existence of mountain 

 lakes may be recognized In Thibet, throughout the entire longitudi- 

 nal depression between the chain of the Himalayas and the main water-shed 

 of the Karakorum, of the once numerous lakes but comparatively few are in 



existence So extreme is the dryness in Western Thibet, that in the 



case of nearly all the lakes still remaining, the cvajjoration exceeds the pres- 

 ent supply of water, so that the prevailing condition is at the present time 

 one of gradual diminution in the area covered by water."* 



The evidence furnished by the Geological Survey of India is to the same 

 effect as that previously obtained by the Schlagintweit brothers. A portion 

 of this evidence is thus summed up in the official resume of the work of 

 that Survey : " All around these lakes and lake-plains [of the Central 

 Himalayas] there is clear evidence that the waters once stood at a much 

 higher level. This fact points to a continuance of the cause which once 

 gave rise to these lakes, — a progressive decrease of precipitation and in- 

 crease of evaporation, whereby the carrying power of the streams has 

 become more and more out of proportion to the rate of disintegration of 

 the rocks." t 



The obsei'vations of Mr. Drew, the author of an elaborate work on Jummoo 

 and Kashmir, $ fully corroborate the previously entertained idea that the 

 latter valley was once occupied by a large lake. This writer says : " The 

 observations of neai'ly every traveller to Kashmir have tended to show that 

 the Vale was in late geological times completely occupied by a lake. The 

 traditions of the natives — traditions that can be historically traced as hav- 

 ing existed for ages — tend in the same direction The existence of a 



* Proc. Bararmn Acad, of Sciences, C'l. II. Band XI. Abtheilung I. 



t A Manual of the Geology of India, chiefly compiled from observations of the Geological Survey. By H. B. 

 Mcdlicott and W. T. Blanford. Calcutta, 1879. p. 672. 



{The Jummoo and Kashmir Territories. A Geographical Account. By Frederic Drew, F. R. G. S. , F. G. S. 

 London, 1875. 



