1845.] Diluvial and Wave Translation Theories. 237 



This fact is considered by Mr. Lyell to be in favour of the 

 iceberg theory, since the masses of drifting ice in approaching warmer 

 latitudes would melt from the warmth of the sea and the action of 

 the sun's rays on their sides and surface, and discharge their rocky 

 freight long before reaching the equator. 



The absence of the boulder formation in Southern India would add 

 weight to this supposition ; but until it has been more thoroughly 

 searched for, we must not jump to this conclusion. Its comparative 

 rarity, however, from the evidence even at present before us, cannot 

 be doubted. I have sought for this formation, and also theold Silurian 

 beds in countries yet nearer the equator, in the Malay peninsula, but 

 in vain: — also on the southern and eastern coasts of the Mediterra- 

 nean, the Red Sea, Egypt, the southern parts of Asia Minor, and the 

 Peninsula of Sinai ; but with similar success. 



To support both the glacial and iceberg theories a period of intense 

 cold in regions where a temperate climate now prevails, is supposed, as 

 before stated, to have existed at a period between the extinction of 

 mammoths and the creation of man. This cold, it is natural to 

 imagine, would influence more or less the climate of countries nearer 

 the equator, and among the rest that of Southern India ; but as yet 

 proofs of this decrease of temperature in the latter, either by the 

 existence of the fossil fauna of more temperate or colder zones, the 

 marks of ancient glaciers, or by other physical facts, are a desidera- 

 tum. 



For recent marks of glacial action, the Himmalayas afford perhaps 

 the best examples nearest the equator, and should be examined with 

 care for ancient moraines, and other indications of a former greater 

 extension of the ice and snow which now cover portions of the peaks 

 and sides. If they be found, the next step will be to ascertain whether 

 such extension of ice is ascribable to a former general decreased tempe- 

 rature of the surface as it now exists, or from a former state of greater 

 elevation of these mountains. It has lately been argued, from the 

 circumstance of fossil animals of warm climates having been found 

 in tertiary Himmalayan deposits now above the line of snow, that 

 the Himmalayas must have been elevated about 10,000 feet since 

 the extinction of these races. It is, however, possible that dur- 



