338 Jonrtial of Travel and N^aiural History 



in this particular region is merely a few degrees ; and in the Andes 

 also it was found by Baron Humboldt not to exceed 30 fathoms 

 from year to year. It is, therefore, highly improbable that the 

 descent of the snow line in the Thibetan Himmalayahs is caused by 

 the lowering of the zone of perpetual snow, and thus we are 

 driven to the second alternative, that the mean altitude of the 

 plain of congelation being nearly constant, the mountains are 

 being gradually elevated, so that portions formerly enjoying 

 temperate climate now lie buried under an accumulation of ice 

 and snow. 



" The instance of the enveloped timber would admit of two explanations — 

 either that it belonged to the age when the Himmalayah mountains had their 

 elevation increased by the Siwalik and Thibet upheavements, or that the tract 

 on which it grew had been subsequently raised up into the zone of congelation. 

 That these mountains, before their summits attained their present elevation, 

 were clothed with forests high upon the tract which is now covered with 

 perpetual snow, is but consonant with the course of nature to suppose ; and 

 wood once enveloped in a snow bed would retain a freshness unimpaired for 

 countless ages. We might, therefore, in a piece of green wood which descended 

 from the higher peaks in an avalanche, light upon a remain which had a con- 

 temporaneous existence with the sivatherium in Hindostan, or the rhinoceros 

 in Thibet ; and it would be a matter of extreme, if not insurmountable difficulty, 

 to determine to what period of the interval between these upheavements and 

 the present time its envelopment in the snow should be referred." — (P. 184.) 



In this way, by a chain of proof, perfect in its kind, Dr Falconer 

 has demonstrated that the Himmalayahs have been elevated several 

 thousand feet since the time that the Siwalik animals roamed over 

 the plains of India, and the rhinoceros lived in Thibet ; and 

 secondly, that the elevatory force is still being exerted. He has, 

 however, omitted to notice the evidence that the Himmalayahs were 

 much higher in comparatively modern times than they are now. 

 The old moraines, and other traces of glaciers far below the point 

 at which they are now found, attracted his attention, and have 

 subsequently been explored by Dr Hooker* and Captain Goodwin 

 Austen, t At the time the glaciers extended much lower than they 

 do now, the mountains must have been much higher. On the 

 assumption that the snow line is very nearly constant, there is proof, 

 then, that the Himmalayahs, like the mountains of Wales and 

 Scotland, have been subject to oscillation of level in comparatively 

 modern times. 



* Hooker, Himalayah Journals, vol i., p. 21S, vol ii., \>. 273. 

 "I" Journal Geographical Society, vol. xxxiv. 



