On the Glaciers of the Himalaya. 117 



be impossible, that these level banks above the rivers, have 

 been caused by deposits from the ravines in the sides of the 

 valleys, for such deposits would have had very ii-regular sur- 

 faces ; and indeed their present effect in destroying the re- 

 gularity of the plateaux is everywhere visible. Had the same 

 appeai'ance been noticed in any other part of the river's 

 course, it would at once have been attributed to the action of 

 the water at some former period ; and it would have been 

 supposed that the bed had afterwards been excavated to its 

 present depth. If this was the case, the glaciers, while the 

 plateau Avas forming, must either have terminated consider- 

 ably higher up the valleys, or have stood altogether at a 

 much higher level ; in either of these ways, the water could 

 have been delivered at a level sufficiently high to form the 

 plateau. But it may admit of doubt, whether the quantity 

 of water in the rivers, as they are at present, is sufficient to 

 account for such an extent of level deposit, or for such a 

 depth of erosion of their beds ; for at this great elevation^ 

 they are not subject to those violent floods that occur lower 

 down ; for nearly half the year, too, they must be almost 

 inert. 



The only other Avay that occurs to me of accounting for the 

 appearance, is, that it has been occasioned by an extension of 

 the glacier, and that the level top of the plateau shews the 

 limit to which the tops of the moraines reached, as the glacier 

 gradually receded. From the very cursory nature of my ex- 

 amination of the matter, however, I am unable to do more 

 than point out the fact, and what possibly may have caused it. 



There is another circumstance relating to these rivers, 

 which is also worthy of notice, namely, that in the upper two 

 or three miles of their course, their fall is considerably less, 

 than in two or three miles immediately succeeding those. 

 Thus, in the Kuphinee, the average fall in the first three 

 miles is about 400 feet, in the next four miles, about 650 feet 

 per mile ; but, as the average is only about 160 for the next 

 eight miles, it is highly probable that the fall in the fourth 

 and fifth miles will be considerably greater than in the sixth 

 and seventh. I tlierefore infer, that it is quite possible that 

 the fall in the fourth and fifth miles may be as much as 800 



