January 2, 1908J 



NA TURE 



FLUCTUATIONS IN HIMALAYAN GLACIERS.^ 

 "\T EARLY half a century ago the glaciers of the 

 J-^ Alps began to shrink. 'I heir retreat was most 

 rapid in the decade following iS6o; since then it has 

 been generally slow, and of late years the ends have 

 been mostly stationary or oscillating. Traditional and 

 other evidence exists of earlier fluctuations, and it 

 suggests that the cycle of change is completed in 

 about half a century. For some time past these 

 fluctuations have been watched in various places, 

 and an International Commission of Glaciers is now 

 occupied in collecting and systematising evidence 

 bearing on the secular and annual oscillations of the 

 ice. 



The glaciers in other parts of the world— the 

 Caucasus, parts at least of the Himalayas, and of 

 North America, even of the southern hemisphere — 

 show signs of a recent retreat. As this is indicative 

 of more than local causes, extended and accurate 

 observations have become more than ever desirable. 

 In 1905, Mr. Douglas Freshfield, so well known as 

 a scientific geographer and explorer, urged the 

 authorities in India to record the secular movements 

 of the principal Himalayan glaciers. 

 They undertook the task, and 

 charged the Geological Survey with 

 the collection and distribution of the 

 observations. Last year twelve 

 glaciers were examined, six in the 

 Kashmir region, surveyed by Mr. 

 H. H. Hayden ; two in the Lahaul, 

 and four in the Kumaon. 



The report before us gives a 

 general account of each glacier and 

 its past history, so far as this can be 

 ascertained, and describes the marks 

 placed to measure its future move- 

 ments, with sketch-maps and repro- 

 duced photographs. In the Hunza 

 region, the glaciers reach lower 

 levels — from seven to eight thousand 

 feet — than in the Lahaul and the 

 Kumaon, where thcv do not descend 

 below about eleven thousand feet. 

 They may, as usual, be divided into 

 two classes — those flowing in valleys 

 transverse to the trend of the range, 

 and those the course of which is ap- 

 proximately parallel to it ; the 

 former, which have the more rapid slope, being the 

 shorter, but descending lower; the latter, such as the 

 Hispar and the Biafo, which attain lengths of twenty- 

 four and thirty-nine miles respectively, being arrested 

 at about ten thousand feet. 



Of the six observed, no certain evidence of gain or 

 loss could be obtained about the Barche and Minapin. 

 The great Hispar glacier, traversed bv Sir Martin 

 Conway in 1892, has since then slightly retreated. 

 The Hinarche glacier, the lower part of which was 

 explored by the same traveller, has evidently ad- 

 vanced. This, however, may not mean much, for the 

 people of the country assert that it fluctuates in a 

 cycle of six vears, advancing and retreating over a 

 distance of some three hundred yards, and was at its 

 maximum when Mr. Hayden saw it. The Yengutsa 

 glacier, however, has gained about two miles in length 

 since Conway's visit, and this, according to native 

 testimony, by a sudden advance about two years 



* Records of the O'-ological Survey of India, vo'. xxxv.. par's iii. and iv. 

 iqo7. Cnntaifine a Preliminarv Survey of Certain Olaciers in theNcth-west 

 Hiiralaya, bv Ofii ers of tlie Geoloeical Survey of India. Pan iii.. Notes 

 on Certain Glaci-rs in North west Kashmir, by H. H. Hayden. Pp. 15; 

 23 plate<. Part iv.. Glaciers in Lahaul, by H Walker and E. H. Pa=cce ; 

 Glaciers in Kumaon, by G. de P, Cotterand J. Caggin Brown. Pp. ix + i8; 

 26 plates. (Published by Order of the Government of India, 1907.) Price 

 I rupee ea''h. 



NO. 1992, VOL. 77I 



before Mr. Hayden 's visit, since when it has been 

 stationary. The Hassanabad glacier, a year earlier, 

 made a yet more rapid and extensive progress, for in 

 the course of two and a half months its length was 

 increased, on the lowest estimate, by six miles, but 

 it is now stationary. The chief official in Hunza 

 also stated that many years ago it had reached, and 

 then retreated from, its present position. The accom- 

 panying illustration, from one of the sixteen excel- 

 lent reproduced photographs in the first part, shows the 

 end of the glacier at the time of the surveyors' visit. 



The two glaciers in Lahaul, surveyed by Messrs. 

 Walker and Pascoe, are both in the Chandra valley 

 — one of them, the Sonapani, ending at about 13,000 

 feet above sea level, has in advance of it a 

 desiccated lake-bed dammed by an old terminal 

 moraine, below which are three similar moraines. 

 The other glacier, the Bari Shigri — the boulder 

 covered — has been already noticed more than once 

 by travellers, and their accounts show it to have 

 retreated considerably during the last seventy years. 

 Of the four glaciers in Kumaon, examined by Messrs. 

 Cotter and Brown, the Pindari is already well known 

 to tourists. It descends from loftv peaks, but the 



ice appears to move rather slowly, and is not much 

 crevassed. It is said to be retreating, but the sur- 

 veyors could not succeed in obtaining any exact 

 details. The Milam glacier was described early in 

 the last century as the source of the Ganges. It 

 is now about twelve miles long, but, as old moraines 

 show, was once larger. The terminal ice-cave, 

 about fifty years ago, was some 800 yards in advance 

 of its present position. The Shankalpa glacier is 

 much crevassed, and is probably retreating, though 

 no old moraines are found much in advance of its 

 present snout. Of the fourth, the Poting glacier, old 

 terminal moraines exist lower down the valley, but 

 no evidence was found of a recent retreat. Here 

 also the excellent photographs and sketch-maps will 

 make future movements of the ice easily detected. 



These fluctuations, whenever they may occur, must 

 be due either to an increased supply on the upper snow- 

 fields, or to a diminished waste of the ice on the lower 

 parts, or to a combination of both ; though sometimes, 

 as in the case of the Glacier Blanc and Glacier Noir 

 in the Pelvoux district of Dauphine,' one ice stream 

 may be advancing while another is in retreat. That, 



1 C. Jacob and G. Flusin, " E'ude sur le Glacier Noir et le Glacier 

 Blanc" (Commission frangaise des Glaciers), 1905, ch. v. 



