P. Lake—Grouwth of the Indian Peninsula. 309 
often to anchor at this harbour in order to hunt reindeer in the 
neighbouring fertile valleys; and this, too, was one of the first places 
visited by Professor Torell’s Expedition in 1858... . During the 
winter of 1860-1861, the previously insignificant glacier descended 
upon the lowland and the grave-hillock on the shore, filled up the 
harbour and extended far into the sea. It now constitutes one of the 
largest glaciers of Spitabergen, from which immense blocks of ice 
constantly fall down so that not even a boat can venture in safety 
beneath its broken border (Sketch of the Geology of Spitzbergen, 
pp. 8 and 9). 
In the facts which J have collected in this paper I do not profess 
to have proved an absolutely conclusive case against the extension 
of a glacial age (other than the one now in progress) to the Arctic 
lands, but I do claim to have shown that the available evidence 
points very strongly in that direction, and it seems to me that 
those who have argued that because there was a large development 
of ice in the form of glaciers in more temperate regions there 
must also have been a corresponding development in much higher 
latitudes, have not only taken for granted what ought to be proved, 
but have confused the problem of discovering a true explanation of 
the so-called Glacial age itself. To this latter problem I hope to 
be allowed to devote a few sentences on another occasion. 
IV.—TuHeE GrowrTH oF THE INDIAN PENINSULA. 
By Puitie Laks, M.A., F.GS., 
Late of the Geological Survey of India. 
T is one of the most fascinating of the recreations of a geologist 
to attempt to reconstruct the physical features of some past 
period; and though our essays in this direction have not been 
attended with complete success, and our maps of early epochs bear 
a striking resemblance to those of Herodotus and Ptolemy, yet these 
maps have their value and they are at least steps towards one of the 
goals of the science of geology. 
But great though the value of a good map of some past period 
may be, its interest lies not so much in itself as in its relations 
to those of earlier and later periods. We wish to see how the 
geography of one period grew out of that of the preceding. 
In some areas the geographical changes have been so numerous 
and so various that this is practically impossible; but in others the 
changes have been simpler, and we are able to trace with more or 
less certainty the evolution of the present geographical features. 
The Peninsula of India is a case in point. Its growth—not from 
one, but from three centres—appears to have been nearly con- 
tinuous; and the present peninsula has been formed by the final 
union of these three masses. Only along the western coast does 
there appear to have been any serious interference with the general 
plan of growth; for the complete absence of anything but gneiss, 
trap, and very late Tertiary beds on this coast, except in the north, 
seems to suggest that the coast itself is of very recent formation. 
