THE PROGRESS OF OEOaRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE. 357 



STUDY OF (!r.A(-IEKS. 



To Mr. Fre.shtield wo certainly ow(> :in introduction to a new vista of 

 great scientific interest in the study of the formation and niovenients 

 of "hu'iers. Here perhaps, we are treading- gently on the skirts of 

 geological science; but I have never 3'et found that part of the world 

 where the careful study of local geographical conformation will not 

 inevitably invoke an inquiry into geological consti'uction. We must 

 accept the inevitable criticism and go on with our glaciers. Where in 

 the world can there be such an area for research into the conditions of 

 glacial formations as is presented ])y the Himalayas^ I grant the 

 physical and political difficulties in the way to whicli 1 have referred, 

 but still well within the limits of our own red !)order there are glaciers 

 yet to be studied, which, if not t\w largest, are yet large enougli to 

 satisfy the loftiest aspirations, and beyond that border the dithculties 

 of approach are lessening day by day and are no longer so formidable 

 that they need hinder the steps of any determined explorer. 



SOUTH AMERICAN GLACIP^RS. 



The speculative interest in glacial movements and their influence on 

 the geoo;raphical conformation become far greater when one moves in 

 a country which has been recently shaped and polished, grooved, and 

 fashioned I )y glacial action; when huge blocks of granite or porphyry, 

 standing sentinel over terraces and ancient glacier beds, witness to the 

 passing of icebergs in prehistoric seas. Such conditions one may find 

 in two widely separated areas, viz, in the Pamirs and In Patagonia. 

 What causes led to the formation of the first vast ice cap of which the 

 glacier is the latest evidence; what caused its disappearance, its reap- 

 pearance; why are the glaciers again withdrawing from the mountains, 

 and what causes the universal process of modern desiccation, of which 

 there is such ample evidence in the Pamirs, in Baluchistan, in Pata- 

 gonia;' It is to the Himalayas that we turn first for an answer to this 

 question, but there are other fields almost equally promising, and one 

 of them is to be found in South America. No one now can pretend 

 any longer that we know nothing of Patagonia. Probably no country 

 in the world has been described by so many geographers in so many 

 (lifi'erent ways; there, at any rate, is a land of glaciers and snow fields 

 awaiting research which presents few of the physical difficulties of the 

 Himalayas. Here is a wonderful country truly, wher(^ glaci(us reach 

 down to the sea in low latitudes, casting little icebergs into waters 

 fringed by green banks of fuchsia and myrtle, and of bam])oo, where 

 the laurel grows into magnificent timl)ei', competing with the Patago- 

 nian beech for roothold on the moss-covered soil. The round gray 

 heads of the granite hills, scratched and seamed ])y a discarded ice cap 

 on one side of the narrow straits l)alance the snow-bound peaks of the 



