ii2 FROM AN EASY CHAIR 



namely, less snow and lower or unchanged temperature 

 in the valley, may prevail. 



The Government of India has lately established a 

 definite survey and record of the movement of several 

 Himalayan glaciers and of the variation in the distance 

 to which their "snouts'" descend into the valleys. 

 Twelve glaciers were examined last year, and will be 

 properly watched in future. The Yengutsa glacier has 

 gained about two miles in length since Sir Martin 

 Con way visited it in 1892 ; the great Hispar glacier 

 has slightly retreated. The Hassanabad glacier three 

 years ago increased its length by a rapid progress of 

 the free " snout " of as much as six miles in three 

 months, and is now no longer increasing or advancing ! 

 Many years ago it had reached its present position, 

 and then retreated. The rock masses carried on the 

 ice and left in great heaps at the point where the 

 glacier melted away are known as terminal " moraines,' 1 

 and often serve to show the position to which the snout 

 of a glacier once extended far below its present limit. 

 A curious fact as to the increase and shrinkage ot 

 glaciers is that of two neighbouring glaciers, as in 

 the case of the glacier Blanc and the glacier Noir in 

 Dauphine (France), one may be advancing whilst the 

 other is in retreat. Further study and knowledge of 

 the causes of these variations will throw important light 

 on questions of general meteorology. 



Although there is no evidence to lead us to suppose 

 that existing glaciers are now actually in a condition of 

 general retreat, leading to their ultimate disappearance, 

 yet it is one of the most certain and interesting results 

 of geological study that some hundred and fifty thousand 

 years ago the northern hemisphere was far colder than it 

 is now, owing partly to the same change in the inclination 

 of the earth's axis to which I alluded on a former page 

 (p. 81) as affecting the orientation of ancient astro- 

 nomical temples a change which diminished, when at its 



