58 H. H. Hoicorth — Absence of Glaciation in 



I might have quoted another witness. In a note to an admirable 

 and most interesting work on Eastern Persia well known to me 

 and to Mr, Blanford. and on page 470, I find the following : " My 

 brother, Mr. H. F. Blanford, has suggested to me that the greater 

 humidity of Persia and the neighbouring countries in former times 

 may have partly accounted for the former great extension of glaciers 

 in the North-West Himalayas. If the west wind so prevalent in 

 Korth-Western India were moist, instead of being hot and dry, as 

 it now is, thei-e would be certainly a great increase in the deposition 

 of snow on the Western Himalayan ranges." Nay, I might have, 

 as I have before, quoted Mr. Blanford against himself; for, in a 

 paper on Persian superficial deposits, he argues that the drying up 

 of Central Asia is connected with the elevation of the Steppe region 

 of Central Asia (J.E.G.S. vol. xxix. p. 500). 



In this I completely agree. The desiccation of Central Asia is going 

 on at this moment. We have a great deal of evidence about the 

 shrinkage of its lakes and the disappearance of its streams in historic 

 times. With this desiccation I hold the shrinkage of the Asiatic 

 glaciers has also proceeded ; and we need not, especially if we are 

 champions of Uniformit}^ go back beyond a reasonable date in order 

 to find an ample and sufficient cause for the increased length of the 

 Himalayan glaciers in recent times. 



Another point in Mr. Blanibrd's criticism I do not quite follow. 

 I understand him to say that because the Wild Ass and the Antelope 

 can live now at great heights, the Khinoceros could do the same. 

 The Rhinoceros is essentially a tree-feeding and shrub-feeding animal, 

 and does not graze on short grass ; and we know the kind of trees 

 which the Tthinoceros antiqnitnlis fed upon. To postulate that the 

 Khinoceros could live where the Antelope lives is to me, like 

 saying that the Zebra could live where the Wild Ass of Mongolia 

 lives; that Cape Buffalo could live where the Bactrian Camel 

 lives; and that the Bison could exist where the Musk Sheep thrives. 

 I do not understand the argument : nor do I understand why the 

 existence of a zoological sub-province in China, which has been 

 established by a chain of observers from Brian Hodgson to Pere 

 David, precludes the notion, otherwise so strongly supported, that 

 the Highlands of Eastern Asia are a recent feature in physical 

 geography. 



This, I think, completes my reply to Mr. Blanford ; and I will 

 now pass on. My argument was not meant to be restricted to the 

 great masses of mountains in Eastern Asia. These masses of 

 mountain are closely united in their physical history with the 

 highlands stretching from the Hinduh Koh westward through 

 Persia ; and it is a remarkable fact that there also we have a 

 singular absence of erratic phenomena and of traces of a so-called 

 Glacial period. 



On this subject Mr. W. T. Blanford says : " In Persia the country, 

 although greatly elevated above the sea-level, is covered with drift ; 

 but I found no signs of stiiation on the pebbles," nor had he been 

 able to detect glacial markings on extensive plateaux more than 



