1877.] II. B. Medlicott — Note on the PrececUnrj I^qier. 13 



Campbell's observations and mine. He describes having taken a walk oi 

 eleven miles, and found no big stones in some minor gorges draining only 

 from the outer ridges. Eeljing on this single observation, and perhaps also 

 upon the privilege he claims as a non-professional geologist, Mr. Campbell 

 eliminates and ignores what I have from the first said to be the chief 

 argument for glacial action, that large blocks of the gneiss from the central 

 ridge do frequently occur away from the gorges leading from that ridge, 

 in minor valleys draining only from the outer ridge, where it is most diffi- 

 cult to suppose they can have been j)laced in the manner he supposes. It 

 was to accoimt for the position of these blocks that I had to imagine their 

 transport on ice-rafts. Instead, however, of insisting on this crucial point, 

 which Mr. Campbell ignores or denies, I am prepared to suggest how it 

 may be compatible with the view he adopts. The fact that coarse diluvial 

 deposits, not derivable from the Sivaliks, are found high over Kangra fort, 

 on the hills south of the valley, makes it certain that the whole valley was 

 once filled with like deposits, which must have reached high along the base 

 and far up the gorges of the Dhaoladhar. It may be that under such con- 

 ditions the diluvial spill from the gorges was high enough to mantle 

 round and over spurs and to fill little valleys that are now totally cut off 

 from those gorges. 



It would be impossible to estimate the plausibility of this supposi- 

 tion without testing it on the ground in view of actual features. At 

 the same time I think that Mr. Campbell can only make out a Scotch 

 verdict of ' not proven' for the ice, as deeply implicated in the transport 

 of these big stones. I cannot bring myself to doubt the evidence that 

 has been given for the former extension of the great Himalaya glaciers 

 to 4,000 feet lower than they at present attain to, as observed by Dr. Hooker, 

 and by Mr. W. T. Blanford in Sikkim. At that time ice-agency must 

 have been very active on the Dhaoladhar. If at present, as Mr. Campbell 

 testifies, lumps of ice are brought by the torrents to the mouth of the 

 gorges, the lumps of those days were probably large enough to pick up 

 the big stones in their way. I would further suggest for Mr. Camj^bell's 

 consideration, that so far as we can at present estimate it, the age of these 

 high-level gravels along the base of the Himalayas, and to which the Kangra 

 deposits belong, seems to be closely coincident with that of the Ice-Age of 

 the western continents. An increase of glacial conditions in the Alj^s, 

 corresponding to that proved for the Himalayas in Sikkim, would j^robably 

 bring the ice down to Interlaken, if not to Neufchatel. 



I would conclude these few remarks with the hope that among the 

 many settlers in the Kangra valley, there may be some members of this 

 Society who will study the ground they live upon with some other j)urpose 

 besides the cultivation of tea. 



