FORMER EXTENSION OF HIMALAYAN GLACIERS. 349 



<a geologically cold epoch, and some European geologists appear to doubt 

 whether India was afl'ected by the glacial period. There is in the Himalayas 

 abundant and unmistakable evidence of a great extension of the glaciers 

 at no very distant geological date, ancient moraines being found in many 

 valleys of Sikkim and Eastern Nepal at elevations of between 7,000 and 

 8,000 feet, and distinct traces of glacial action exist in valleys the lowest 

 portion of wliicli is now not more than r5,000 feet above the sea. Moraines 

 have been noticed by Colonel Godwin-Austen farther east in the Naga hills, 

 south of the Assam valley as low as 5,000 feet ; in the Western Himalayas 

 perched blocks are found 3,000 feet above the sea, and very large erratics 

 have recently been noticed in the Upper Punjab at much lower elevations."* 



It is admitted by Mr. Medlicott that there is no evidence of a " geologically 

 cold epoch" in India, yet there can be no doubt that the glaciers — in 

 portions of the Himalaya, at least — have extended down the flanks of the 

 mountains considerably farther than they now do. It is also apparent that 

 this larger development of the ice was, to a considerable extent, limited to 

 the exterior ranges and did not exhibit itself on anything like the same scale 

 in the Thibetan mountains, that is to say, on those lying farther north and 

 more in the interior of High Asia. This is just what ought to be expected, 

 if the present writer's ideas are correct in regard to the nature and amount 

 of the climatic change by which this former greater extension of the ice on 

 the southern edge of the elevated mass of Central Asia was brought about. 

 It is evident, however, from the extract given above, and italicized by the 

 present writer, that Mr. Medlicott cannot conceive of the ice masses being 

 enlarged in one region while they remained essentially unaffected in an- 

 other ; and yet that would be entirely in harmony with the conditions which 

 have been shown to exist in various parts of the Avorld at the present time. 

 The writer's views receive a very important additional support in the fact 

 that there appears to be no proof of any former " cold epoch " in Peninsular 

 India. 



The evidence of former greater extension of the glaciers in other portions 

 of the great system of ranges Avithin which High Asia is enclosed is by no 

 means of a definite character. The eminent Russian geographical explorer, 

 SewerzoflT. claims to have discovered "traces of a Glacial epoch" in the Thian- 

 Schan Range, in the form of old moraines and boulder deposits, which he 

 thinks could only have been produced by glacier action. In one locality 



* 1. c, Vol. I. pp. S72, 373. 



