336 GANGETIC MUD AND EUROPEAN LOESS. CHAP. xvi. 



phibious mollusca might in this way accumulate to any 

 extent, so that the waters might overflow some of the heights 

 originally bounding the valley, and deposits of 'platform 

 mud,' as it has been termed in France, might be extensively 

 formed. At length, whenever a re-elevation of the Alps at 

 the time of the second extension of the glaciers took place, 

 there would be renewed denudation and removal of such loess ; 

 and if, as some geologists believe, there has been more than 

 one oscillation of level in the Alps since the commencement 

 of the glacial period, the changes would be proportionally 

 more complicated, and terraces of gravel covered with loess 

 might be formed at different heights, and at different periods. 



Himalayan Mud of the Ganges compared to European 



Loess. 



Some of the revolutions in physical geography above sug 

 gested for the continent of Europe during the post-pliocene 

 epoch, may have had their counterparts in India in the recent 

 period. The vast plains of Bengal are overspread with Hima 

 layan mud, which, as we ascend the Granges, extends inland 

 for 1,200 miles from the sea, continuing very homogeneous on 

 the whole, though becoming more sandy as it nears the hills. 

 They who sail down the river during a season of inundation 

 see nothing but a sheet of water in every direction, except 

 here and there where the tops of trees emerge above its level. 

 To what depth the mud extends is not known, but it resem 

 bles the loess in being generally devoid of stratification, and 

 of shells, though containing occasionally land shells in abun 

 dance, as well as calcareous concretions, called kunkur, which 

 may be compared to the nodules of carbonate of lime some 

 times observed to form layers in the Ehenish loess. I am 

 told by Colonel Strachey and Dr. Hooker, that below Cal 

 cutta, when the flood subsides, the Gangetic mud may be seen 



