162 Henry H. Howorth — Elevation of Eastern Asia. 



been only 1500 feet, and he further adds that " the possibility of such 

 a minor elevation is countenanced by the fact that the Pleistocene 

 lacustrine strata of the valley of Kashmir have undergone a con- 

 siderable amount of disturbance." This means, I presume, that beds 

 •will maintain their horizontality if raised up 1500 feet, but not if 

 they are raised 15,000. To me the very reverse of this seems to 

 follow. An elevation of 1500 feet means that the force probably 

 operated over a small area and would cause a great deal of local 

 disturbance. An elevation of 15,000 feet operating over the immense 

 area covered by the highlands of Eastern Asia would mean the 

 possible and probable raising of large areas without disturbing their 

 horizontality. 



Nor can I understand another argiament of Mr. Lydekker's, 

 namely, that there were probably some considerable sheets of water 

 in Tibet which would modify the climate considerably, and make it 

 possible for these large herbivores to live there at the present 

 altitude. That the presence of more water would modify the climate 

 is certain, but assuredly not in the direction Mr. Lydekker urges. 

 Water at 15,000 feet above the sea-level would feed glaciers and not 

 trees. The reason why the present Himalayan glaciers are so 

 shrunk is, it seems to be entirely due to the desiccation of the 

 country, and if there were only watery vapour to condense, the 

 Himalaya valleys, 15,000 feet above the sea-level would assuredly 

 condense it fast enough. This is the very reason why the glaciers 

 are so much higher on the northern flanks of the Himalayas at the 

 present moment than they are on their southern slopes. As Thompson 

 long ago said in his admirable book, "In comparing the glaciers of 

 the Tibetan Himalaya with those on the Indian face of the same 

 mountains, it will be found that ccsteris paribus glaciers descend 

 much lower on the Indian side, or in a moist climate, than in the 

 dry and arid Tibetan climate" {op. cit. p. 580). 



We may take it, therefore, as certain, that if present conditions are 

 incompatible with the existence of a varied herbivorous fauna, those 

 postulated by Mr. Lydekker must have been much more so, and it 

 seems to me that Dr. Falconer's argument remains absolutely intact, 

 or is rather strengthened by Mr. Lydekker's. It is strengthened 

 also by a fact long ago noticed by Thompson and Cunningham. 



Thompson, in his Travels in the Western Himalayas, more than 

 once mentions finding fresh-water shells in lacustrine clays at great 

 heights; ex. gr. at Kyuri he found a few small shells, among others 

 a Limncea and a Planorhis. The clay was covered by a coarse 

 alluvial conglomerate {op. cit. p. 117). Again near Lake Tbogji 

 Chumo, he found shells in prodigious abundance. This was 15,500 

 feet about the sea-level. A day's journey further on he again met 

 abundance of shells in the clay, nearly all Limncea, but occasionally 

 there was a small Cyclas. The lake, which is now salt, must, 

 Thompson urges, have been fresh when these molluscs lived in it 

 (id. pp. 170-2). Again, at the lower part of the Nubra, about 10,300 

 feet above the sea-level, he again found the shelly clay covered with 

 some fifty feet of detritus. The shells, he says, which were all 



