102 Henry H. Hoivorth — Elevation of Eastern Asia. 



are traces of tlieir having been bigger and stretched further, but 

 these traces are nevertheless strangely limited in extent, considering 

 the huge reservoirs of ice vs^hich the Himalayas must have been, in 

 the so-called Glacial age, if the same conditions had prevailed there as 

 pi'evailed in corresponding times in the Alps. We must not forget 

 that not only was the southern monsoon there vv^ith its heavy rains, 

 but the Asiatic Mediterranean was also then existing, so that we 

 must not measure the amount of moisture then prevailing with what 

 jarevails now ; and what is the testimony of the best observers on 

 the subject? There has no doubt been a polemic in which many 

 writers, such as Theobald, Wynne, Lydekker, Drew, and others have 

 joined ; but this has been rather about the extent to which the 

 modern glaciers have shrunk : all admit recent glaciation in the 

 higher valleys, but I know of no Indian geologist, except Mr. 

 Theobald, who has contended for signs of vast glaciation, such 

 as we find in the much smaller European ranges of the Alps and 

 Dovrefelds. I would add that Strachey has published in the 

 Encyclopaedia Britannica a very useful diagram showing the com- 

 parative size of the Alps and the great Asiatic uplands, which is 

 a very useful measure of the kind of traces of a glacial age we 

 ought to meet in Eastern Asia. To revert, however : there is a 

 general concurrence among observers that the phenomena iu the 

 Himalayas are on quite a small scale comparatively. 



Thus, Mr. J. F.Campbell writes : "The Himalayan region is a slope 

 about 200 miles wide between the upper plateau of Asia and the 

 plains of India .... I looked at every stone and heap of stones 

 about the foot hills, expecting to find some glacial mark. I looked at 

 every hill top, expecting to find some remnant of a glacial record 

 between the river gorges. ... I stayed at Simla for some time, and 

 found no sign of glacial action of any kind up to about 9000 feet. 

 All the ridges which divide streams are sharp and steep as the ridge 

 of a house. All the furrows are deep V-shaped, angular, steep 

 gutters, like the gutter between two steep roofs. I could not dis- 

 cover one rounded hill or hollow, one ' saddle ' or ' hogback,' from 

 Simla, or from places near it to which I could travel .... The 

 highest ground visible is a jagged sierra of pyramidal angular points, 

 among which are the glaciers " (Quart. Journ. G. S. vol. xxxv. 

 pp. 109-110). " Hirdswar is a sacred place where the Ganges 

 leaves the hills. At the sources of the Ganges are glaciers. If these 

 glaciers ever extended far during a Glacial period, some mark ought 

 to be found about the place where a river as big as the chief river 

 of Lombardy at its greatest size escapes from the great basin, whose 

 jagged edges and steep sides I had seen from Landour, where frosts 

 and deep snows occur frequently. In a like position in Italy, near 

 Turin, are ramparts of glacial debris. Hirdswar is 1124 feet above 

 the sea. The edge of the basin is nearly 20,000 feet higher, and 

 the area is large and comparable to the area of the Val d'Aosta or 



the Lago Maggiore I stayed at Hirdswar for several days, and 



could find no sign of glacial action whatsoever" {id. pp. 113-114). 

 At Eoorkee, in digging a huge canal, there was found only mud, 



