10 J. F. Campbell — on Himahfan Glaciation. [No. .1, 



about Lat 31° 2'. It is impossible that an ice cap can have passed from 

 Thibet, since these gorges began to be eroded. Some are three miles deep, 

 so they must be very old. Forms which exist in the Himalayas prove the 

 ice cap to be impossible. There is absolutely nothing here on which to 

 found a " Glacial period," which produced an " Ice cap." There is no evid- 

 ence, even of any great extension of local glaciers here. All the change that 

 I can trace is the possible existence here, of small glaciers perched high up, 

 near the crest, where snow now rests. That change of climate may have 

 been the result of something like the atmospheric conditions which make 

 the Sind rainfall about a fiftieth part of the rainfall here ; and make the 

 rainfall elsewhere about six times as great. 



I am greatly obliged to you for advising me to come here. My object 

 is attained and very pleasantly. 



Calcutta, February 14<th, 1877. — Had I been present at the reading of, 

 this paper, I suppose that the author's right to the last word would have been 

 mine. I have been to Darjihng ; to a fourth hill station ; and I have now 

 gained some knowledge of points in Cashmir and Bhutan fifteen meridian 

 degrees apart. I have seen a considerable part of Ceylon, and the low country 

 between Bombay and Lahore and along the Oudh and Kohilcund railway, 

 opposite to Nepal. I have had the advantage of reading Hooker's 

 journal, and Mr. Blanford's, within sight of their ground, and I hat"e 

 the benefit of Mr. Medlicott's criticism. I have also read papers by 

 Major God win- Austen and Mr. Belt. I see no reason to alter my opinion 

 about the Kangra "big stones." I have seen many as big, in water-courses 

 near Kursiong and Darjiling, left by streams which made the furrows 

 and quarried the stones. The usual water-power is not sufficient to roll 

 these big stones, because the gathering ground above them is too small in 

 area and too low. But given a landslip, sufficient to gather a head of 

 water, and the furrow would be swept by a flood when the dam burst. 

 Numerous landslips of enormous size are visible from Darjiling ; but the 

 rivers Rungeet and Teesta have swejjt their beds clear of all obstructions. 

 At some places very large rolled stones are left in these water- courses. But 

 there are no deposits in the Indian plains comparable to the glacial deposits 

 near Turin, in the Italian plains. 



The burden of proof rests upon those who hold to improbabilities, 

 and require conditions different from those which exist. So far as my 

 facts go, they prove that Himalayan glaciers have never extended far from 

 the regions in which glaciers now exist. These hang about the edges of 

 great river basins, below very high gathering grounds of large area, which 

 condense the warm damp atmosphere of the plains, and of the Southern 

 Ocean. I have found nothing in India to prove that these conditions have 

 altered materially since the Himalayas grew to 1 e mountains. 



