November 24, 192 i] 



NATURE 



411 



Balla, and thence, by the name of the Bura Torsa 

 in the plains, the stream goes to join the Brahma- 

 putra opposite the Garo Hills. Curiously enough, 

 the Sivalik or Tertiary formation is absent at 

 Balla, but it may be hidden beneath the recent 

 alluvium. For twenty-five miles it is not visible, 

 but at Buxar the Sivaliks suddenly reappear in 

 considerable thickness, and contain abundant 

 fossilised boughs of trees, indicating a forest-clad 

 country on the north when they were laid down. 

 These sandstones continue without a break and 

 with varying breadth to far-distant Eastern Assam 

 at the base of the Abor Hills. 



To see the Tertiaries again as exemplifying 

 the extent of Himalayan denudation one has 

 to cross the broad alluvial valley of the 

 Brahmaputra some loo miles south, where they 

 lie up against the Assam Range and contiguous 

 to the intrusive granite there. They can be fol- 

 lowed to Sylhet, to Jaintia, and the Naga Hills, 

 rising in altitude until they reach in the latter 

 country a height of 10,000 ft., the whole thick- 

 ness being exposed from base upwards. The geo- 

 logical evidence goes to show that this late eleva- 

 tion of the Assam Range diverted the direct 

 courses of the Subansiri and Tsanspu of Thibet 

 which originally flowed through Burma to the sea 

 into the present less direct route into the Bay of 

 Bengal, and completely altered the ancient geo- 

 graphy, and particularly the features of the Gan- 

 getic Delta. 



I have mentioned granite intrusion. This leads 

 me to refer to a very recent contribution in the 

 Journal of the Geographical Society, September, 

 192 1, p. 199, by Col. Sir Sydney Burrard, "On the 

 Origin of ^fountain Ranges." He asks: "Have 

 they been elevated by horizontal compression of 

 the surface, or by vertical uplift from below? " 

 Further on : " It is difficult to be satisfied with the 

 theory that mountains have arisen from horizontal 

 compression, and we have to face the question : 

 \Vhat is the force that has raised mountains?" 

 ;n this case the Himalaya). Again, on p. 200 : 

 The highest summits are generally composed of 

 granite, and the granite masses are believed to 

 have risen out of the crust." I follow and agree 

 with him, adding that actual observation is better 

 than the many theories that have been put for- 

 ward, such as that of Col. E. A. Tandy, R.E., 

 "that falling stones sink by their own weight into 

 the crust as though the latter were molten." 



In Baltistan I was first struck by the evidence 

 that the granite was intrusive, and I had the 

 ipport of Cjen. McMahon {Geological Maga- 

 :ine, 1897, p. 304), and discussed it with 

 him. I came to the conclusion that granite in- 

 trusion has done more to elevate the Himalayas 

 than any other force. It penetrates the meta- 

 morphic rocks, and has carried them up with it, 

 and it can be followed for an enormous distance 

 on the outer face of the great range, though 

 always in the same relative zone. 



In Nepal we have no data to go by, but at 

 the Kali River, in longitude 80°, the granite — 

 NO. 2717, VOL. 108] 



evidently intrusive — mapped by Capt. Herbert in 

 181 5, after the Nepal War, is a conspicuous 

 feature at Xynee Tal. The well-known Cher 

 Peak near Simla extends it, while at Dharmsala 

 is the most remarkable out-pouring forming the 

 Dhauladhar, where, as the late Gen. C. A. 

 McMahon points out, it is twelve miles broad. 

 The Chatadhar extension, where I have seen 

 and mapped it myself, is seven miles broad — 

 where it has carried up the Xummulitic formation 

 to the crest of the range — and in its plastic-look- 

 ing state appears to lie above the Eocene and 

 Pleistocene formations, compressing them and 

 turning them over to a high, reversed dip. With 

 such breadths of intrusion we have not far to go 

 to find a cause for the folding and faulting of the 

 Sivaliks rocks. In Kashmir similar granite in- 

 trusion is met with on the Pir Panjal and on the 

 Kajnag Range west of BaramuUa, up to Mozuf- 

 ferabad, with inversion of the Eocene on the 

 south. 



In the Times report of October 21 are the truly 

 sensational headlines, "Wild Hairy Men,'" 

 "Human Footprints." I fear the missing 

 link has not yet been found ; nevertheless, 

 the observation has interest, and can be 

 explained by the fact that a large species 

 of monkey, probably of the genus Semno- 

 pithecus, the Hannman, or Lungur, has found its 

 way from the Nepal side into Thibet, and has been 

 reported to extend north of the Tsanspu. The late 

 Capt. C. G. Rawling, R.E., in his excellent book, 

 "The Great Plateau" (pp. 222, 223), tells how 

 Capt. H. Wood, R.E., saw a troop of monkeys 

 in November at Sangsang, which is nearly due 

 north of Mount Everest ; unfortunately, it was 

 too late in the day to follow them and secure a 

 specimen. These animals live there all the year 

 round — a ver\- interesting fact — and to be visible 

 at 500 yards it must be a large species. Even on 

 the slopes of Everest this monkey, which is om- 

 nivorous, would find plenty to live on, for the hare 

 found everywhere in this region is abundant 

 and easily caught in its forme after a cold night. 

 .\ Lungur could in a few hours be down in warmth 

 on the Nepal side, and in all probability the foot- 

 prints were those of one retiring before the 

 advent of the expedition camp. Mr. Briant H. 

 Hodgson, who was for so many j^ears resident at 

 Katmandoo, brought together a splendid collec- 

 tion of mammals and birds, and he is not likely to 

 have missed the existence of a new monkey in 

 the vallev of Nepal, I find that in August, 1834^, 

 he exhibited his extensive series of skins of mam- 

 malia at a meeting of the Zoological Society of 

 London. An abstract of the species shown is 

 given (Proc. Zool. Soc. , p. 95, 1834"), and it is 

 stated that Semnopithecus entellus of F. Cuvier 

 "has been introduced by religion into the central 

 district (i.e. of Nepal), where it flourishes, half- 

 domesticated, in the neighbourhood of temples." 

 What more likely than that it has met the same 

 happy protection in Thibet, the only part of the 

 world where all living creatures can live in peace? 



