804 Glaciers of the Pindur and Kuphinee Rivers. [Aug, 



valleys, for such deposits would have had very irregular surfaces ; and 

 indeed their present effect in destroying the regularity of the plateaus 

 is every where visible. Had the same appearance been noticed in any- 

 other part of the river's course, it would at once have been attributed to 

 the action of the water at some former period ; and it would have been 

 supposed, that the bed had afterwards been excavated to its present 

 depth. If this was the case, the glaciers while the plateau was form- 

 ing, must either have terminated considerably higher up the valleys, 

 or have stood altogether at a much higher level ; in either of these 

 ways the water could have been delivered at a level sufficiently high to 

 form the plateau. But it may admit of doubt, whether the quantity 

 of water in the rivers, as they are at present, is sufficient to account 

 for such an extent of level deposit, or for such a depth of erosion of 

 their beds ; for at this great elevation they are not subject to those 

 violent floods that occur lower down ; for nearly half the year too they 

 must be almost inert. 



The only other way that occurs to me of accounting for the appear- 

 ance, is that it has been occasioned by an extension of the glacier, and 

 that the level top of the plateau shows the limit to which the tops of 

 the moraines reached, as the glacier gradually receded. From the very- 

 cursory nature of my examination of the matter however I am unable to 

 do more than point out the fact, and what possibly may have caused it. 



There is another circumstance relating to these rivers which is also 

 worthy of notice, namely, that in the upper 2 or 3 miles of their course 

 their fall is considerably less than in the 2 or 3 miles immediately suc- 

 ceeding those. Thus in the Kuphinee, the average fall in the first 3 

 miles is about 400 feet, in the next 4 miles about 650 feet per mile ; 

 but as the average is only about 160 feet for the next 8 miles, it is 

 highly probable that the fall in the 4th and 5th miles will be consi- 

 derably greater than in the 6th and 7th. I therefore infer that it is 

 quite possible that the fall in the 4th and 5th miles may be as much 

 as 800 feet per mile, or even more ; which the appearance of the rivers 

 would fully justify. 



Smaller extensions of the glacier of the Pindur were visible in many 

 places. They were marked by mounds of a rounded form, covered 

 with grass, projecting from the modern moraines in a curved direction 

 concave to the glacier. I did not remark them at the Kuphinee. . 



