Ball — On the Volcanoes and Hot Springs of India. 169 



" The occurrence of fish in the water at Pugha, at an elevation 

 of nearly 15,500 feet above the level of the sea is also very remark- 

 able, and still more strikingly demonstrative of the same fact, in- 

 asmuch as it would certainly not have been very surprising that air 

 at that elevation should from its rarity be insufficient for the support 

 of life in animals breathing by gills." ^ 



To those who may desire to pursue this line of enquiry it may be 

 useful to mention that lists of the species of conferva and diatomacecs 

 which have been found in the hot springs at high altitudes in the 

 Himalayas are given in Balfour's " Cyclopaedia," together with refe- 

 rences to the literature of the subject, in the article on hot springs. 



These facts and deductions lead very naturally to the considera- 

 tion of what I have elsewhere suggested-, namely, the probability that 

 the evidence which is usually relied upon by geologists in their 

 reconstructions of the climates under which, life existed in long past 

 geological periods may require some revision, or at least reconsidera- 

 tion. Where the fossils of animals or plants are found which seem to 

 indicate tropical or semi-tropical conditions of the climate at the time 

 when they lived, may it not be possible to suggest, especially if there be 

 any facts tending to prove the existence of different climatic condi- 

 tions elsewhere at the same time, that there may have been widespread 

 fumaroles or hot springs sufficient to have produced local hot-houses 

 in which animals and plants may have flourished which could not 

 otherwise have existed in the normal conditions of climate belonging 

 properly to the time and place ? 



Thomson, " Western Himalayas and Tibet," pp. 164-5. London, 1852. 

 " Jungle Life in India," p. 561. 



E.I. A. PROC., SEE. III., VOL. HI. N 



