"66 CAPT. A. W. STIFFE ON THE GLACIATION OF PARTS 



6. Note on the Glaciation of Parts of the Valleys of the Jhelam 

 and SiND EiYERs in the Himalaya Mountains of Kashmir. 

 By Capt. A. AV. Stiffe, F.G.S. (Eead December 4, 1889.) 



(Abridged.) 



The extent of the former glaciation of the Himalayas has been 

 discussed by various authors, and very different views have been 

 expressed as to its magnitude. Mr, Lyddeker has noticed the 

 unstratified deposits of boulders in the Jhelam gorge, and the proba- 

 bility of their being ice-borne * ; Messrs. Theobald and Wynne have 

 described glacial deposits in the plains of the Punjab, not remote 

 from the foot of the mountains f ; quoting Dr. Verechere's remarks 

 on erratic blocks about 100 miles S.W. of the Jhelam valley i, Mr. 

 Wynne § describes similar blocks near the Indus river southward 

 of Attock, and enormous moraines and angular blocks in the Eastern 

 parts of the Salt Eange, also others 20 miles southward of Jhelam 

 City ; Col. God win- Austen || also refers to extensive glaciation of 

 the Jhelam valley. 



The Author records his own experience while on a visit to the 

 valleys of the Jhelam and Sind rivers, stating, in the first place, 

 his belief in the gigantic scale of the ancient glaciation, and then 

 giving first a general description of the principal features of the 

 Sind valley and the existing glaciers near Sonamarg, which are at 

 present apparently still shrinking. The existence of snow-fields 

 far below the foot of the glaciers is an unusual feature. 



Very perfect and typical older terminal moraines exist at Sona- 

 marg, some 4 miles below the present glaciers, at an elevation of 

 about 10,000 feet, and these, at a not remote period, blocked up the 

 valley of the Sind river, and formed *a small lake now replaced by 

 a small Alpine plain ; the sections cut by the rivers through these 

 moraines are remarkable. 



The glaciated appearance of the gorge through the mountains just 

 below Sonamarg is very striking, and the indications reach to great 

 heights above the present valley-level, and the whole of the Sind 

 valley is characterized by a succession of moraines, through which 

 the river has cut gorges, sometimes very deep. The most marked 

 positions noted were as follows :■ — One on each side of Gagangair, 

 one with several concentric curved mounds about 5 miles above 

 Kongan, and another, just above Gootlibagh, only seen on the south 

 side of the valley. 



But to go much further than this, the hillsides of the valley 

 generally were observed to be comparatively rounded in outline up to 



* Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India, vol. xxii. 



t Records of the Geological Survej* of India, November 1880. 



\ Journ. Asiat. Soc. Eengal, vol. xxxvi. p. 113. 



§ Mem, Geol. Surv. India, vol. xiv. 



II British Association Report, 1880. 



