1888.] Address. 69 



in Kashmir as described by Mr. Lydekker, and that of tbe Simla region 

 were real. His report brings out points in what we may term the new 

 view of the origin of the crystalline rocks, in the working out of 

 which Col. C. A. Macmahon has done such excellent service, and to the 

 microscopic study of which Mr. C. S. Middlemiss is now applying him- 

 self. The difficulty of distinguishing between gneissose granite and 

 granitoid gneiss, still exists and gives rise to much diversity of opinion ; 

 and, perhaps too, the origin and recognition of the gneisses themselves 

 are as controversial subjects among geologists as any. It is, therefore, 

 interesting to notice that Mr. Oldham is at times, (particularly regard- 

 ing the ' central gneiss ' of the Wangar Valley) as decided in his re- 

 cognition of their sedimentary origin from well defined and parallel 

 beds differing in lithological and mineralogical structure, as some of 

 his predecessors of so far back as 1857. While crossing the Babeh 

 Pass, Mr. Oldham noted that one of the most striking features is 

 the marked absence of distinct traces of glaciers south of the pass 

 and their presence north of it ; on the latter side glacier evidences 

 extend to a distance of 3000 feet below and 17 miles from the crest, 

 while on the south no certain traces can be found below 1000 feet, 

 or about half a mile from the summit. Mr. Oldham remarks that this 

 difference is paralleled by the present distribution of ice, and that the 

 contrast is doubtless due to the fact that the waste is much less on 

 the north than on the south side, not only from the intensity of the 

 sunshine being less, but to a much larger extent owing to the com= 

 parative absence of rain, little of which falls north of the pass, while 

 therie is probably a much less proportional difference in the snow-fall. 



Regarding the very interesting question of the origin of the 

 Rupshu lakes, Mr. Oldham does not think that the simple view of their 

 arising out of the damming up of river valleys by the fans of their 

 tributaries is completely satisfactory. In some cases, it may be that 

 these fans form the entire barriers : but it would seem that local eleva- 

 tion of the river valley at a more rapid rate than that of the erosion 

 of the river must be brought in as an ultimate cause. Mr. Oldham also 

 suggests that the gradual and progressive drying up of Laclak appears 

 to have been a direct result of the gradual elevation of the Himalaya, 

 which in course of time cut off a larger and larger proportion of the 

 moisture coming from the south. The lake basin and karewahs of 

 Kashmir, which have hitherto been accounted for, either by a glacier 

 descending into the Jhelam Valley, or by the formation of a talus 

 fan similar to the supposed barriers of the Rupshu lakes, rather than 

 by the more obvious hypothesis of a rock barrier since cut through, have 

 also received notice from the same writer = He again fulls back on the 



