PAST GLACIATION OF HIGH ASIA. 347 



exhibit itself, to a certain extent, in causing the area over which snow falls 

 to become extended, and thus to favor the formation of glaciers. How far 

 these antagonistic forces may have had, in any particular region, the effect to 

 counterbalance each other, it is evidently impossible to say. The difficulty 

 of accounting for the absence at the present time of ice and perpetual snow 

 in various localities where the climatic conditions seem favorable to their 

 existence has been rendered evident by the statements made in a previous 

 section ; much more would it be difficult to make out exactly- to what 

 extent the causes in question w'oald be likely to have neutralized each other 

 during a former period. But we may, as it appears, pretty safely draw the 

 inference from the facts presented that diminution of precipitation has, 

 on the whole, been a more jjotent agent than the increase of cold. That 

 being the case, we might expect to find that, as a general rule, the glaciers 

 in every part of the world where they exist have been diminishing in size 

 during later times. We need not be surprised if it appears to be the case 

 that in some regions they have disappeared altogether. The facts, however, 

 will be first presented — necessarily with extreme brevity — and a discussion 

 of their bearing on the problem before us will then follow. We may, for 

 convenience, begin with High Asia and the chains of mountains by which 

 this region is encircled.* 



It so happened that a most extensive and systematic exploration of that 

 portion of the mountain masses of High Asia where we should naturally first 

 look for evidences of a "Glacial epoch " was made by two German geologists, 

 the Schlagintweit Brothers, who had. previous to their work in India, occu- 

 pied themselves with the study of Alpine geology, and especially with the 

 phenomena of the glacier regions of Switzerland. They had published elab- 

 orate works on this subject, and were perhaps as fully prepared to carry on 

 investigations of the kind necessarv to determine such a question as that 

 now before us as any persons could be. It is not known to the writer that 

 any other geologists who have made explorations in the Himalaya have had 

 so good a previous preparation for the study of climatic and glacial phe- 

 nomena. We naturallv, therefore, turn to the volumes in which the results 

 of their Indian investigations have been made public, to see what they 

 have to say in regard to the former existence of a " Glacial epoch " in that 

 region. A large part of their work remains unpublished, although twenty 

 years have elapsed since it was finished. Their latest, and, as it would seem, 



* Sec ante, pp. 278-280. 



