THE THIAN-SCHAN AXD HIMALAYAN RANGES. 131 



lake over tlie whole valley of Kashmir occurred at no remote time, speaking 

 by a geological standard ; but it was long enough ago to have preceded an}' 

 of the monuments of man that have yet been discovered." The area which 

 must have been covered by water " at no remote time " was about 2,000 

 square miles. 



In continuing our observations of the phenomena of desiccation in an 

 easterly and northeasterly direction from the region just passed over in 

 review, we find ourselves confronted by facts of a similar character to, and 

 on quite as grand a scale as, those described in the preceding pages. Want 

 of space makes it impossible to do more than offer a few citations from the 

 works of the most eminent modern explorers of the arid regions of Central 

 Hit>;h Asia. 



The mountains of the Thian-Schan, a great complex of ranges stretching 

 off to the northeast, in parallel alignment, from the so-called Pamir Plateau, 

 and forming the crumpled border of High Asia on its northwestern side, 

 have been recently explored, in considerable detail, by Sewerzoff, who thus 

 expresses himself, when speaking of the distribution of forests on the i-anges 

 in question : " Be this as it may, the ftxct that many forests which have been 

 destroyed are never replaced shows that these forests were developed at a 

 time when the climate of the Thian-Schan was moister than it now is; and 

 that it was once moister is proved by traces of former glaciers and lakes which 

 have now disappeared, as well as b}' the fact that Issyk-Kul (Lake Issyk), 

 which has no outlet, has materially decreased in size, as is proved by the posi- 

 tion of the sedimentary deposits which surround it, and reach an elevation 

 from 300 to 500 feet greater than that of the present surface of the lake."* 



The author of '' The Indian Alps " f (Mrs. Mazuchelli) makes similar 

 remarks with regard to the portions of the Himalayas traversed by her 

 party. According to her, the pines in the higlier regions are all dying out, 

 and no young ones are growing up to supply the deficiency. No mention is 

 made of desiccation as a possible cause of this condition of things, in this 

 case, but it would seem that this must be the chief one. In many parts of 

 the High Sierra, in California, the writer has observed similar facts, indicat- 

 ing that the growth of trees, along the upper limits of arboreal vegetation, 

 is disappearing, never to be replaced. $ 



* Petermaim : Erganzungslieft, No. 43. 1875. p. 67. 



+ The Indian Alps and How we crossed them. By a Lady Pioneer. London, 1876. 



t See also, on this point, C. King's " Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada." Boston, 1872. p. 252. 



