HIMALAYAN GEOLOGY 321 



of the foot-hills dipping away from the axis of the chain, so 

 commonly observed. The intervening valley would then be 

 a line of fracture parallel to the range. 



I do not see the necessity for a shift of the Earth's axis 

 to account for a glacial period in the Himalaya ; all you want 

 is greater deposition of snow, either owing to a wetter climate 

 or to a greater elevation of the chain. 



When the N.E. of Asia was a sea (inclusive of Caspian, 

 Aral, Black, and probably E. Russia), the Himal. must 

 have had a much wetter climate. I never thought it 

 necessary to suppose that the Ice of the Glacial period 

 extended to one and the same latitude in a given longitude 

 during the whole of the Epoch. Why should we suppose 

 that it extended to mid. N. America at the same time 

 that it extended to N. Italy ? The two Continents, then 

 as now, differed wholly in climatic conditions, and as wholly, 

 if not more so, during the glacial than the present period. 

 Be all this as it may, we have no conditions existing in 

 the globe to be compared with the Himal., when the Aralo- 

 Caspian sea extended over N.W. Asia. 



I should like to see a map of the Himalayas with the 

 perpetual snow indicated as now, and as if the snow-line 

 were 1000 ft. lower, and anpther with it 2000 ft. lower. 

 I suspect that such an accession, covering so many now un- 

 snowed Mts. and valleys, would bring about a pretty state 

 of matters, and a sea to the North might bring about this. 



To the Same 



Aug. 11, 1893. 



Thanks for Mr. Middlemiss' x paper. I am so awfully 

 busy that I could do no more than glance through it, but 

 that was enough to frighten me from doing more, for the 

 very technical terms are new to me. The complication 

 of the Strata is enough to make one giddy, and I recall a 

 rhyme I made in the Himalaya and sent it to Darwin : 



Stratification is vexation, 

 Foliation's twice as bad ; 

 Where faults there be 

 They puzzle me, 

 And Cleavage drives me mad. 



1 Charles Stewart Middlemiss. In 1883 he was appointed Deputy Superin- 

 tendent of the Geological Survey of India. 



