' Western Asia and Eastern Europe, etc. 55 



Worlcl. I wish to make my survey more complete by an examina- 

 tion of an interesting area comprising Eastern Europe and South 

 Western Asia. 



Before addressing myself directly to this issue, however, I feel 

 under an obligation to reply to the criticisms of Mr. Blanford. 

 They appeared when I was far away from England, or they should 

 have had an earlier notice. 



In one of my papers I quoted the testimony of four geologists of 

 wide-spread fame and great experience, keen and patient observers, 

 whose works are geological classics, who had visited and explored 

 with great pains the Urals, the Altai Mountains and the Thian Shan 

 range, namely, Humboldt, Tchihatchef, Von Cotta, and Severtsof. 

 All these observers had examined geological phenomena in many 

 latitudes and were familiar with glacial marks, and all of them 

 failed to find the footmark of the Glacial Period in the ranges in 

 question, although they looked for them. This is assuredly a strong 

 case. How does Mr. Blanford dispose of it ? He says he can 

 attach no value to the evidence brought forward, because (mark the 

 phrase) " I myself was at one time led away by it." To measure 

 the capacity of some of the greatest geologists of modern times for 

 distinguishing what I venture to think are among the most obvious 

 of phenomena, by the fact that the critic, like every other good man, 

 has once made a mistake, seems to me to involve an appeal to other 

 than scientific reasoning. 



Let me add that, as Mr. Seebohm has reminded me, Pere David, 

 who spent many months at Moupin, on the frontier of China and 

 Tibet, at the foot of a mountain as high as Mont Blanc, failed to 

 find traces of old glacial action there, a result which was, I believe, 

 also reached by Eichthofen in other parts of China. 



This is assuredly a very important addition to the strong chain of 

 witnesses I have previously quoted in your pages in references to the 

 great congeries of mountains in Eastern Asia. 



Turning to the Himalayas, Mr. Blanford does not dispute the 

 fact that in Peninsular India and in the great plains of the Indus 

 and the Ganges, the real Hindostan, no true glacial phenomena are 

 forthcoming. He urges, however, that they do occur high up in 

 the Himalayas on a scale quite incommensurate with my arguments. 

 I have not visited the Himalayas myself, but I did quote two ex- 

 perienced observers, Mr. Campbell and General McMahon, whose 

 testimony is decidedly at issue with Mr. Blanford, and who had 

 visited the country. It is true that some of Mr. Campbell's theories 

 are fanciful enough ; but I never met any one who disputed his 

 keen eye for, and his extraordinary knowledge of, glacial facts in all 

 parts of the world. Apart from these explorers, however, I appealed 

 to a witness who is unbiassed by our discussions, who has no views 

 whatever as to the glacial theory. I mean the Sun. Mr. Blanford 

 seems to have a contempt for photographs. I am bound to say I 

 differ from him toto coelo ; and I have examined glacial phenomena 

 over as much ground as most people. 



In regard to the main and most satisfactory evidence of glaoiation. 



