J. F. CAMPBELL ON GLACIAL PERIODS. 123 
41. Summary. If the ice-cap ever came down from the north 
pole to the equator, it must have come down from Central Asia over 
the Himalayas.” There is no trace of it on a band of country mea~- 
sured by fifteen degrees of longitude between points in Cashmere and 
in Bhotan. ‘There is no trace of it in the Caucasus, in the Crimea, in 
the Alps, orin the Rocky Mountains of America. If a late “ Glacial 
period ” existed all record of it that remains below lat. 32° in India 
is on a narrow belt some few miles wide, and possibly 6000 feet 
deep, round the edges of river-basins, and near glaciers which I saw 
at a distance from four hill-stations in the Himalayas, from Kangra, 
Simla, Landour, and Darjeeling. 
42. Weather.—Glaciers flow like rivers, and like them are subject 
to speates and inundations which depend upon the weather. The 
first glacier I ever touched had taken a late fit of advancing, and 
had ploughed up green pastures and turf. It had then melted away, 
leaving stones which it carried on the surface upon stones over 
which it had passed. There was a wide hollow area of bare wet 
muddy rubbish in front of theice. After 1841 most glaciers on the 
north side of the Alps advanced, and many of them ploughed up 
pastures. After a time most of them retired. ‘Those which had 
come down steep slopes now end at the top, a long way and a stiff 
climb above their old limit. Those which had advanced are now a 
great deal shorter than they were, and their limits are marked by 
their moraines, and remembered for the damage done. I have no 
statistics ; but the facts are well known to Alpine travellers. I have 
no explanation to offer; but this change manifestly depends upon 
“ the weather,’ not upon astronomical causes. From some atmo- 
spheric cause the rainfall of Southern India failed, and caused a 
famine in 1876 and 1877, while the winter in Britain was unusually 
wet and the land was flooded. 
That is enough to show that marked changes in Himalayan 
glaciers may also result from common atmospheric causes, and that 
the amount of change recorded does not require an abnormal Glacial 
period. Since 1841 a small Caucasian glacier slid and tumbled 
down at a fork upon a branch, which advanced a long way and 
threatened the road in the Darie! pass. For that reason the glacier 
was surveyed, and the changes were recorded. The Caucasian glacier 
and the Alpine glaciers have gone on flowing as usual, and their 
changes haye been noted. Changes in Himalayan glaciers have not 
been noted, but they resemble river-floods. Within certain limits 
they depend upon the weather. . Within the life of men still living 
the weather on the west coast of Scotland has changed for the worse, 
so as to destroy some garden plants altogether and to spoil crops. 
The change has been noted only by those whom it chiefly concerned, 
by men who have lived at the place all their lives; the rest of man- 
kind probably know nothing about these changes of Scotch climate. 
According to Icelandic Sagas, the coasts of Greenland once were 
accessible and habitable, where floating ice now makes navigation 
almost impracticable, where cultivation has ceased altogether, and 
civilized men have ceased to live. Yet the world’s climate remains 
