1890-91.] in the Central Himalayas. 395 



washed away by the tropical rains. But the fact remains 

 that Naini Tal is a true rock tarn. It cannot have been 

 caused by a landslip, and it is not the crater of an old 

 volcano. It is, of course, a very difficult thing to say why 

 there are glacier lakes in Kumaon and nowhere else in the 

 Himalayas ; but the difficulty would not be got rid of by sup- 

 posing them to be landslip lakes or volcanic craters. I would 

 suggest that some light may be thrown on the problem by a 

 phenomenon which occurs in the plains, at the base of the 

 Kumaon hills. I refer to what is called the Kumaon hluibur. 

 This is a Kumaon word which has been adopted into scientific 

 phraseology as a name for a thing which occurs more conspic- 

 uously there than anywhere else in the world. Wlien a 

 precipice rises abruptly from a plain, fragments of the preci- 

 pice, detached by frost, tend to fall on the plain, and these 

 fragments may either be carried away by streams or may be 

 left lying where they fall. If they are left lying, in process 

 of time a terrace of dihris accumulates some height above the 

 plain. Any rain which falls on it at once passes through, just 

 as if it were a rubble-drain, and sinks into the plain beneath. 

 Such a terrace is called by the people of Kumaon lliahur. 

 There are, of course, neither wells nor springs in it, but after 

 long ages soil forms on it, and it is taken possession of by the 

 saul-tree (Shorca rohusta), the most valuable tree in India. On 

 leaving the Kumaon hills, you everywhere pass through this 

 hliahir land, covered with magnificent saul-trees. Going a 

 little farther from the hills, you arrive at a swamp, called the 

 tcrai or wet land. This swamp is caused by the rain which 

 fell on the hlmhur, and soaked through it, being here able to 

 make its way to the surface. There are never any trees in 

 the tend swamps — nothing but tall grasses, the favourite lair 

 of the tiger. Now there is a hliahur country and a terai 

 country all along the foot of the Himalayas, except in the 

 extreme east ; but nowhere is the hhabur so l>road and so well 

 marked as it is in Kumaon. I believe, therefore, that the 

 same causes which produced the great breadth of the hlmhur 

 at the foot of the Kumaon hills, caused the persistence of the 

 glacier lakes which are situated only a few miles off in their 

 interior. What that was — whether their geological struc- 

 ture or their greater height — I am not prepared to say ; but 



