Western Asia and Eastern Europe, etc. 59 



6000 feet above tbe sea, with peaks rising to 12,000 feet and even, 

 more (Q.J.G.S. vol. xxx. p. 478). Elsewhere he says: "Of glacial 

 action in Persia there is, perhaps, a trace in the thick gravel found 

 locally, as near Karman, on ranges of considerable height. At the 

 same time no clear evidence of ice action could be detected. In the^ 

 Elhurz Mountains, which are in about 36° latitude, neither Dr. Filippi 

 nor I could find any evidence of former glacial action. It is true that 

 neither of us had much opportunity for exploring ; but it is remark- 

 able that Abich should have called attention to the same absence of 

 glaciation in the Caucasus" (Blanford's Eastern Persia, p. 470). 



Dr. Filippi, whose memoir is before me, speaks in the same terms. 

 He very naturally asks where the great mass of water can have 

 come from to spread the gravel which occupies so much of the sur- 

 face of Persia, to explain lohich he says we must not have recourse to 

 a glacial epoch of which there is no trace in the Elhurz Mountains, " di 

 cui non vha nelle montagne dell' Elburz alcuna traccia" (Atte della 

 Soc. It. de Sci. Nat. vol. vii. p. 283). The same writer calls attention 

 to another fact which I would quote here, and which corresponds 

 with what I have said of the Ural Mountains and the American 

 Cordillera, namely, that these great masses of high land form no 

 zoological frontier, and are therefore presumably of very recent 

 origin. "A great continuous barrier," he says, "like this, ought, 

 like the other principal mountain chains of the world, to form a 

 frontier separating two sensibly distinct faunas, but this is not the 

 case. There is a greater difference between the fauna on the two 

 sides of the Alps, and on the east and west of Europe than on the 

 two sides of the Elburz" {id. 279-280). He further urges that the 

 fauna of the high ground in Western Persia is essentially that of the 

 Caspian depression and of the Turanian Steppes, which seems to me 

 to also point to these highlands having been elevated very recently. 



No doubt Mr. Palgrave, who by the way was not a geologist, did 

 profess to find considerable traces of old glacial action in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Erzerum, as others have professed to find them in the 

 Caucasus. In answer I would refer to the observations of a most 

 acute and experienced geologist, namely Abich. 



In an elaborate memoir by him on the geology of the Caucasus 

 and the mountains of Armenia and North Persia, published in the 

 7th volume of the Memoirs of St. Petersburg Academy, he says : 

 "The distribution of erratic blocks, together with the associated 

 phenomena of the grinding and polishing of rocks, is foreign to 

 the Caucasus. Nevertheless, large blocks of stone and masses of 

 rock of large dimensions, like erratic blocks in many respects occur 

 in some of the valleys, especially those of the Terek ; often too they 

 have travelled some distance. But the transport of these blocks has 

 nothing in common with the true diluvial phenomena of the period 

 of erratic blocks of the European mountains, but is assignable merely 

 to alluvial action which still operates, though in a diminished man- 

 ner." He describes how, through the conformation of the valleys, 

 especially in such places as the narrow pass of Dariel, great barriers 

 of debris are found which dam back lakes 200 or 300 feet deep, and 



