W. T. Blanford — Age of the Himalayas, etc. 209 



IV. — Note on the Age and Ancient Glaciers of the Himalayas. 

 By W. T. Blanford, LL.D., F.R.S., etc. 



I DO not think geologists who have studied the Himalayas will 

 be disposed to agree with Mr. Howorth {ante, pp. 97-104, 

 156-163) that those mountains have come into existence since the 

 time when the Mammoth flourished in Siberia. It is quite possible 

 that the Himalayas are higher now than they were in Pliocene or 

 even in Pleistocene times ; but the geological evidence, so far as it 

 is known, is, I think, in favour of the view expressed by Mr. K. D. 

 Oldham in the Geological Magazine for February {ante, pp. 72-73). 

 This view is that the period of elevation has approximately coin- 

 cided with the Tertiary era. The Upper Pliocene beds along the 

 southern border of the range so closely resemble in material and 

 coarseness those forming in the same area at the present day as to 

 indicate very similar geographical conditions, and Mr. H. B. Medlicott 

 showed, many years ago, that where the great Himalayan rivers 

 flow now, great rivers have flowed since early Pliocene times at 

 least. The principal question in dispute amongst recent investiga- 

 tors of Himalayan Geology has been whether the range existed in 

 Pre-Tertiary times or not. Mr. Howorth's contention that the 

 elevation of the Himalayas is Pleistocene (or, as some geologists 

 call it, Post-Tertiary) has the very great merit of novelty. 



Mr. Howorth's principal argument for the recent origin of the 

 Himalayas is founded on the absence of ice-markings on a large 

 scale. On this subject he has brought together a remarkable mass 

 of evidence. It is difficult, without writing a paper of considerable 

 length, to pick out the weak points in this evidence, and to show 

 how much may be said on the other side. I will give one example 

 of each form of reply. 



One of Mr. Howorth's principal witnesses, perhaps I should say 

 his principal witness, is the late Mr. J. F. Campbell. Now Mr. 

 Campbell's main object in the paper quoted was to demolish certain 

 rather extravagant ideas, held only by a few extreme glacialists, 

 about polar ice-caps extending to the tropics and similar hypotheses. 

 As a matter of fact, Mr. Campbell never entered the main Himalayan 

 range ; he only went to three or four hill-stations on the outer spurs. 



On the other hand, Mr. Howorth has overlooked evidence by 

 geologists who really traversed the main range. The only part of 

 the higher Himalayas that I have been able to examine is to the 

 eastward in Sikkim. Here, more than forty years ago. Sir J. 

 Hooker described great moraines in every Himalayan valley that 

 he ascended, at or about 7000 or 8000 feet elevation (Himalayan 

 Journals, vol. i. p. 3S0). I found the same, and can entirely confirm 

 Sir J. Hooker's observations. The Lachoong and Lachen valleys 

 (which unite to form the Teesta) have, above the lowest moraines, 

 the u -shape and other characteristics of glacier valleys. At the 

 present day, in this part of Sikkim, no glaciers descend below 

 14,000, and very few below 16,000 or 17,000 feet. Thus great 

 glaciers, in this part of the Himalayas, descended in Pleistocene 

 times from 6000 to 10,000 feet lower than they do now. In 



DECADE III. TOL. Till. NO. Y. li 



