166 Dr. W. T. Blanford — Age of the Himalayas. 



the Tibetan plateau is far less perfect as regards Mammals than that 

 of any island, and that some of the forms — the Carnivora especially 

 — found in Tibet are probably very recent immiorants, it is a 

 reasonable conclusion that the peculiar fauna of the Tibetan plateau 

 has been distinct from that of neighbouring countries since Middle 

 Tertiai-y times. 



But what has caused the isolation of the Tibetan fauna ? Whj^ in 

 this one continental tract is there a generic and specific differentiation 

 of the Mammalia of which no other example exists ? There is only 

 one character in which Tibet is different from other continental 

 areas, its great height. This alone renders the climate of Tibet 

 so different from that of other parts of Central Asia, which are 

 equally cold and barren. It seems a reasonable inference that the 

 elevation of the Tibetan plateau dates back to Middle Tertiary times. 



It is of course probable that the elevation was gradual ; and 

 although the area may have been sufficiently high at the close of 

 the Miocene period to produce a difference in climatal conditions, 

 the greater part of the upward movement may have been post- 

 Miocene, and a great part post-Pliocene.^ 



I hope I have succeeded in making myself understood. I do not 

 expect Mr. Howorth to concur ; in all probability he has no more 

 faith in evolution than he has in subaerial denudation, and will pre- 

 fer to attribute the origin of genera and species to the same unknown 

 agency as that which he supposes to have produced the river valleys 

 of the Himalayas. 



But really arguing with Mr. Howorth is hopeless work. I thought 

 if there was any one point that I had clearly shown it was that the 

 late Mr. J. Campbell's evidence as to the absence of glacial action 

 in the Himalayas was worthless. Mr. Campbell never went near 

 the higher Himalayas, and he himself compared his distant view 

 of the Sikhim mountains from Darjiling to the look-out upon the 

 Alps from the church tower of Novara in Lombardy. This and 

 his other opportunities of seeing the higher Himalayas, might fairly 

 be regarded as similar to those of a Swiss tourist, whose knowledge 

 of the Bernese Oberland is confined to a view of it from the Rigi. 

 Would Mr. Howorth accept the opinions of the Rigi visitor as to the 

 presence or absence of glacial action in the Rhone Valley ? 



Mr. Howorth quotes two " experienced observers," Mr. Campbell 

 and General MacMahon, whose testimony is decidedly at issue with 

 mine and who have visited "the country" (p. 65). Now " the 

 country" can only be the tracts "high up in the Himalayas" mentioned 

 in the previous paragraph. I can only repeat that Mr. Howorth 

 is in error in supposing that Mr. Campbell visited, the higher 

 Himalayas. With regard to General MacMahon's evidence, I regret 

 I did not reply before ; but all I can say is this : that I think Mr. 



' In my last contribution to this question in the August Number of this Magazine, 

 there is a mistake, that I must have overlooked in the proof, on p. 373. I wrote: 

 "Surely to say that 'a movement has been distributed over the Tertiary and post- 

 Tertiary period and a great portion is of post- Pliocene date,' is not the same 

 as to say that the whole movement, or even the greater part of the movement, is 

 post- Pleistocene." The last word has been by mistake printed post- Pliocene. 



