394 -^ Description of Kttmaon, [Sess. 



but all are not aware that the scenery of the Himalayas is far 

 inferior to that of the Alps or of our own Highlands. The 

 view of the snowy range, seen from the plains of India, is 

 indeed one of the grandest sights of the world ; but once inside 

 the hills, the traveller is disappointed. This is partly owing 

 to everything being on too vast a scale, but chiefly to the 

 absence of lakes and small streams. The caiise of the absence 

 of lakes in the Himalayas may here be noticed. Our Scotch 

 lakes are divided by Geikie into four classes : 1st, Lakes of 

 the plains, of glacier origin ; 2d, Moraine tarns, such as those 

 round Ben Macdhui, also of glacier origin ; 3d, Eock tarns, 

 like Coruisk, also glacial ; and 4th, Glen lakes, generally sup- 

 posed to be owing to local subsidence, connected with a fault 

 in the strata, but possibly, like the other three, really of glacier 

 origin. In Italy we have examples of a fifth kind of lake, 

 that formed by the crater of a volcano ; and a sixth kind of 

 lake is sometimes formed by a landslip damming up a stream, 

 of which Mulwa Tal in the Himalayas is supposed to be an 

 example. From this enumeration it may be seen that the 

 great majority of lakes are probably of glacier origin. Now 

 the last glacial period in the northern hemisphere ended some 

 12,000 years ago. No doubt it left many glacier lakes in the 

 Himalayas, as it did in Scotland, but in Scotland most of these 

 lakes remain to the present day, owing to the comparatively 

 light rainfall. In the Himalayas, on the other hand, the lake 

 barriers have been swept away by the enormous tropical rain- 

 fall. Instead of lakes we have now large rivers, far apart 

 from each other, and at a great depth below the average sur- 

 face of the country. It is easy to understand how the lakes 

 have disappeared. No moraine lake-barrier could stand long 

 against the tremendous rainfall of the months of July, August, 

 and September. A rock tarn would hold out much longer, 

 but in course of time it too would disappear. There are, 

 however, few rules without an exception, and there are still 

 six rock tarns left in the province of Kumaon, though there 

 are none anywhere else in the whole Himalayas. Such, at 

 least, is the opinion of my friend Mr Theobald, of the Indian 

 Geological Survey. It is true that there is around these lakes 

 no other sign of glaciation — no perched blocks, no roclus 

 inoutonnies, no glacial striation ; all these have been long ago 



