294 H. H. Howorth — Rapid Elevation of Himalayas. 



grown that it is very difficult to make out the relations of the strata, 

 for they are certainly flexured and perhaps faulted. We feel sure, 

 however, that the beds in the first cutting are higher than those in 

 the second, and we hope in a future paper to publish the evidence 

 on which we base our conclusions. If our reading is correct, there 

 is a well-developed Upper Purbeck series in the Vale of Wardour, 

 with a thickness of 70 or 80 feet ; and this is succeeded by repre- 

 sentatives of the Wealden and Vectian series, which, however, are 

 poorly developed and taken together are less than 100 feet thick. 



IV. — The Eeoent and Eapid Elevation of the Himalayas. 

 By Henky H. Howorth, Esq., M.P., etc. 



IN the last Number of the Geological Magazine my friend Mr. 

 W. T. Blanford takes exception in very courteous terms to 

 the views I have maintained in regard to the recent elevation of the 

 Highlands of Eastern Asia. I cannot, however, quite grasp how 

 far he agrees or disagrees with me. He does not apparently question 

 the evidence which has so impressed experienced observers like 

 Humboldt, Murchison, Tschihatcheff, Cotta, and Senkofski in regard 

 to the absence of traces of widespread glacial phenomena in the 

 high mountains of the Ural, the Altai, and the Thian Shan ranges, 

 and which apart from all considerations seems to me inexplicable on 

 any other theory than that these mountains did not exist during the 

 so-called Glacial Period. 



Mr. Blanford limits his criticism to the Indian evidence ; but even 

 here I do not quite understand what is the exact position he main- 

 tains. In the Manual of Indian Geology, that splendid encyclopgedia 

 of facts on whose title-page his name occurs with that of Mr. 

 Medlicott, it is stated over and over again that traces of glaciation 

 are nowhere present in peninsular India. In the same " Manual " 

 it is argued that the so-called glacial phenomena which have been 

 said to occur in the Punjaub and other parts of the Plains are 

 to be otherwise explained, and I believe I am right in attributing 

 to Mr. Blanford the view that the old glaciers of the Himalayas 

 never protruded into the plains. 



This limits the problem therefore to the Himalayas themselves. 

 Mr. Blanford objects to Mr. Campbell's very emphatic evidence 

 because he had never penetrated into the inner valleys, and only 

 spoke of the outskirts where the valleys open out. This is true ; 

 nor does Mr. Campbell claim to have done more than deduce his 

 conclusions from what he saw. He was a very keen observer, he 

 had seen glacial phenomena in all parts of the world, he went 

 specially to study glacial phenomena on the spot, and his descriptions 

 of what he saw, which are very minute and graphic, seem to me to 

 be most conclusive that the lower parts of the Himalayan valleys 

 show no traces of glaciation. 



But I did not quote Mr. Campbell only. General McMahon, who 

 has studied and written much on the Himalayas, and published his 

 observations in the Kecords of the Indian Geological Survey, is just 



