496 SEE— ORIGIN OF HIMALAYA MOUNTAINS. [Arni i8. 



Moreover, the subject of the origin of the Himalayas is attract- 

 ing attention abroad. Apparently without knowledge of my work* 

 Colonel Sidney G. Burrard, R.E., F.R.S., surveyor-general of India, 

 has been devoting considerable attention to the subject in " Pro- 

 fessional Paper No. 12, Survey of India," a summary of which is 

 given in The Observatory for November, 1912, p. 413: 



" It may be remembered that several years ago Col. Burrard showed that 

 there appears to be a subterranean mass of great density lying across India in 

 mean latitude 23° North. He now shows that the observations indicate the 

 existence of a line qi low density between this subterranean mass and the 

 Himalayas, and suggests that there was, or is, one long crack in the earth's 

 subcrust extending from Sumatra round the Arrakan coast across northern 

 India, through the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean, traces of which are 

 seen in the parallel shores of the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf. The 

 crack has been filled with alluvial deposit across Northern India and in other 

 places, but the Himalayas remain as the result of the rift in the earth, a 

 great mass of matter having been pushed northward. It has been supposed 

 by others that the Himalayan range was formed by the southward advance 

 of the northern part of the Asiatic continent on to the Indo-African table- 

 land." 



The idea here developed by Colonel Burrard, including especially 

 the light material under northern India, and the pushing of the 

 Himalayas northward, is so very similar to that developed in my 

 memoirs that it must be regarded as an independent confirmation of 

 the theory that the mountains are formed by the sea. And as this 

 conclusion applies to the greatest and most intricate range in the 

 world, the external relations of which are not entirely simple, I 

 deem it worthy of attention. 



Finally, it may be noted that much interest has been awakened 

 in this subject in England and other countries of Europe. The 

 new theory already is widely taught in the schools of Great Britain 

 and the continent; and in his new work "The Growth of a Planet" 

 (The MacAIillan Co., New York, 191 1), the London geophysicist 

 Mr. Edwin Sharpe Grew, M.A., concedes that the author's reason- 

 ing on the Aleutian Islands is unanswerable, and finally says : 



* Since this paper was written Colonel Burrard informs me that to his 

 regret he had not seen the papers of igo6-8, and seems to regard the new 

 theory as quite well established. 



