450 On the Gypsum of the Himalaya. £Oct. 



III. — Remarks on a late Paper in the Asiatic Journal on the Gyp- 

 sum of the Himalaya. By the Rev. R. Everest. 



In the July No. of the Asiatic Journal, there is some information 

 given us on the gypsum of the Himalaya, for which the thanks of all 

 lovers of geology are due to the writer (Capt. Cautley). But as it 

 is accompanied by a theory of the formation of gypsum in general, 

 which seems to have been hastily adopted, and which a more mature 

 consideration of the subject would probably induce him to reject, I 

 shall make no apology for pointing out what I believe to be his error, 

 lest others should be misled by his authority. 



Having stated a doubt among geologists respecting the gypsum of 

 the Alps, viz. whether it is primitive or transition, he proceeds to 

 describe the gypsum of the Himalaya, and having done so, thus express- 

 es his opinion as to its origin. 



" A question of considerable interest arises from the appearance and position 

 of the above-mentioned deposits, which, as mentioned in a former part of this 

 paper from their position under rocks of the primary and secondary classes ac- 

 quire an appearance of antiquity, not borne out by the general history of the mi- 

 neral ; viz. that the gypsum throughout the globe is simply an infiltration ana- 

 logous to the tufa, and calcareous deposits ; and depending on causes chemically 

 similar ; the sulphuric acid being the active generator instead of the carbonic. If 

 in the proximity of sulphur an excess of oxygen would produce sulphuric acid, a 

 difficulty is removed, and the contact with lime-rock, or carbonate of lime would, it 

 may be supposed, produce its sulphate or gypsum ; and I cannot perceive the impro- 

 bability of such a process having been, or being still in force ,• or that nature's labora- 

 tory might not have been as active in the dissemination of gypsum, as it is in the 

 present day, of the calcareous tufa." — vide p. 293. And again, p. 295. " If there- 

 fore, where carbonate of lime, sulphur, and water are abundant, the chemical change 

 above-mentioned is allowed, or is supposed from analogy, to be a probable con- 

 sequence, gypsum can no longer be entitled to a place in either primary, tran- 

 sition, or secondary classes ; but must be considered as an adventitious formation 

 common to all ages, and produced by causes analogous to the present rapid for- 

 mation of calcareous tufa. Among our primary and transition rocks, none can 

 be assimilated to the stalactitic carbonate of lime ; among our secondary or latest 

 class of general rocks, there is none like the gypsum, that is to say, we know of 

 none actually forming at this day. Causes that led to the formations of such 

 abundance of gypsum formerly may, from unassignable reasons, no longer exist ; 

 and those which produce the tufaceous carbonates, then at rest, may now be in 

 full vigor." 



Did the writer, when he thus proposes as original the opinion of 

 the formation of sulphuric acid from the proximity of sulphur and 

 water, forget that it is the common solution of one of the most common 

 phoenomena in geology, I had almost said, in nature ', and never 



