56 n. H. Howorth — Absence of Glaciation in 



more satisfactory than eitlier boulders or scratched stones or moraines, 

 namely, the rounded and curved outlines always present when a 

 glacier has polished a valley, I know of no testimon}' so excellent 

 as that of photographs, for by their help we can rid ourselves at 

 once of the personal equation of the observer whether he have ice 

 or water on the brain. I appealed to photographs — many of which 

 I had seen — and to that appeal I adhere. I contend they are a 

 complete justification of my views, 



I never argued that when you get up into the higher valleys of 

 the Himalayas there is no evidence of the former presence of 

 glaciers. I emphatically stated that there is, as Hooker and others 

 showed long ago ; but I did and do contend that these traces of 

 former glaciers are infinitesimal compared with what they ought 

 to be if the Himalayas had existed when the great Khone glacier 

 was depositing its famous loads far and wide. 



I do not quite understand the reference to a difference of latitude 

 which Mr. Blanford says I have overlooked. What has latitude to 

 do with the question ? Assuredly the Urals, which rise in places 

 to a height of 1525 metres, and which are covered with snow for 

 eight months in the year, the Altai Mountains, which are higher, 

 and the Northern Eockies are all in latitudes which, if that had 

 anything to do with the question, would have placed them at least 

 on the same level as the Alps, the Pyrenees, and the Scotch 

 Mountains, which have such abundant traces of glacial action upon 

 tliem. It is not latitude that has to do with the question, but an 

 abundant supply of moisture, and a sufficiently powerful source of 

 cold. With these two conditions there will be abundant snow and 

 ice, whatever the latitude. 



When I spoke of a great Asiatic Mediterranean having existed 

 during the Glacial period, it was not, as Mr. Blanford seems to 

 suppose, to invoke an army of icebergs as having existed there, 

 which I altogether disbelieve in ; but to point out that this reservoir 

 of water close at hand would supply the very moisture necessary 

 for a tremendous glaciation of the Asiatic mountain chains, and 

 notably of the Altai, if these mountain chains had then existed. 



Granting this supply of moisture, granting the capacity of these 

 high ranges as excellent condensers, we have in the wide area they 

 cover the necessary elements for a huge development of ice. If 

 there is no evidence of this ice having existed, then I would urge 

 again that it goes a long way to prove that the great mountains did 

 not exist either at the time in question. 



That the glaciers have been bigger no one disputes, but I hold 

 with Godwin-Austen that this was comparatively recently. On 

 this subject he wrote as follows in the Geological Journal many 

 years ago : — 



" I have often been struck by the indications of considerable 

 amounts of change of temperature within ivhat may he called our oivn 

 times. The proofs of this are to be found in many parts of the great 

 Himalayan chain. These consist in the numerous terminal moraines 

 which in so many places abut on the larger rivers, down to which 



