52 PKOCEEDIls^GS OE THE aEOLOGICAL SOCIETT. 



period of formation of the basins of the great lakes, thus strengthen- 

 ing the validity of that supposition. It is the composition of the 

 hunter jSTagelfluhe. May not the unknown debris of this deposit have 

 been derived from the portions of the valleys now depressed out of 

 sight? This is surely a more likely conjectui^e than that of MJSL. 

 Escher and Studer (as quoted in M. Heer's work, ' Die TJrwelt der 

 Schweiz '), of a ridge of these peculiar crystalline rocks along the 

 north base of the Alps, the remains of which ridge have since disap- 

 peared down a fissure, and been fuiiher put out of sight by the lateral 

 sKding of the limestone-mountains ! If the great lake-valleys were 

 stiU exposed to observation, if this phase of the process of distur- 

 bance had not extended to so much greater lengths in the Alps than 

 in the Himalayas, we might find in this peculiar debris evidence, 

 of the same kind as I have noticed in the Sivalik rocks, for the per- 

 manence of the Praemolasse streamcourses. 



There are a few insignificant lakes along the outer fringe of the 

 Himalayas that are evidently due to movements of the kind we are 

 supposing, sijice the actual valleys were carved out. The Kundulu 

 lake, on the road from Eoopur to Belaspoor, is the most typical of 

 this kind. The old lacustrine, or at least alluvial, area about Belas- 

 poor itself and that about Haut, north of Subathoo, are of like 

 character. 



Although not attaching the same importance as has been given 

 by several Alpine geologists to the subtropical character of the fauna 

 and flora of the Molasse, as deciding the low elevation of the Alps 

 in that period, compared with their present state, I may point out 

 that the series of changes I am supposing would embrace such a 

 position. Even the known distribution of land and sea in the 

 Molasse period would go far to account for the requu'ed difference of 

 climate. It is evident, however, that, at the commencement of the con- 

 tinental elevation which has been supposed to have interrupted the 

 accumulation of the Molasse, the central mountains may have been 

 lower than now. The word continental as applied to elevation 

 implies only slow movement, a large area afi'ected, and perhaps no 

 ahru-pt Knear limitation to that area, such as would be the " bos- 

 sellement " in M. de Beaumont's theory. The last condition implies 

 a very decided line of maximum elevation, which is all we require 

 for the point under discussion. 



If the view I have attempted to illustrate should not prove in 

 any sufficient manner explanatory, even of the Subhimalayan 

 sections, it will not have been useless to discuss a supposition that is 

 fairly plausible, and which therefore should not have been so ignored 

 as it has been, to the best of my knowledge, in discussions of Alpine 

 sections and of mountain-formation in general. 



