564 E. HUNTINGTON SOLAR HYPOTHESIS OF CLIMATIC CHANGES 



One or two other lakes may be mentioned as samples of the intervening 

 regions. Lake Buldur, in central Asia Minor, is surrounded by strands 

 at elevations of 750, 460, 400, 100, and 35 feet, in addition to a minor 

 strand at 8 or 10 feet. Lop-N"or, a lake in the eastern part of Chinese 

 Turkestan, is also surrounded by six strands at elevations of 600, 300, 

 115, 35, 20, and 12 feet and by several minor ones at lower levels. The 

 lake of Seistan, in southeastern Persia, not only presents two pronounced 

 strands as evidence of recent fluctuations, but its deposits have been up- 

 lifted by recent earth movements, and show a series of apparently lacus- 

 trine beds alternating with beds which were apparently deposited under 

 arid conditions. The date of these beds is uncertain ; but they represent 

 the last phase of the geological history of the region previous to recent 

 volcanic outbursts, and seem to afford good evidence of a succession of 

 climatic changes, numbering about 15, and closely analogous to those indi- 

 cated in the Searles Basin. The long, deep, narrow valley of the Dead 

 Sea is much like that of Owens Valley both structurally and climatically. 

 It presents the same kind of favorable conditions for a full record of cli- 

 matic changes. There we find old strands at elevations of 1430, 540, 430, 

 300, 250, 210, 170, 145, 115, 90, 70, 50, 40, 30, and 12 feet. It is scarcely 

 necessary to point out the resemblance of this series of 15 strands to that 

 of 22 in the Searles Basin. Inasmuch as some of the strands around the 

 Dead Sea are double, the number of climatic fluctuations recorded at the 

 two places is almost the same.^^ 



It has sometimes been thought that strands such as are here described 

 may have been the work of temporary lakes, due to the rapid melting of ice 

 and snow which had accumulated during the Glacial period. This view 

 has been advocated by Gale in a Contribution to Economic Geo\ogy,^^° 

 published by the United States Geological Survey. He apjDlies it specific- 

 ally to such strands as are described by Free in the preceding quotation. 

 According to this hypothesis, such lakes would have a very brief history, 

 and would be only a transient phase of the glacial retreat clue to increas- 

 ing warmth rather than to variations in rainfall. That lakes of this sort 

 were a feature of early post-Glacial time seems highly probable, but it is 

 doubtful whether traces of them have yet .been distinguished. The lakes 

 which we are here considering do not seem to be of this origin for two 

 reasons. In the first place, many of the strands are marked by broad, 

 high beaches and ridges, or by lofty bluffs which could not have been 



1" Further data on the strands of Asiatic lakes and the deposits of Seistan may be 

 found in the following publications : Explorations in Turkestan, vol. 1 ; The Pulse of 

 Asia ; Palestine and its Transformation ; and Some Characteristics of the Glacial Period 

 in Non-glaciated Regions. Bull. Geol. Soc, Am., vol. 18, 1907. 



i9« Bulletin r)40-N. : 1918, pp. G-7. 



