1845.] Diluvial and Wave Translation Theories. 245 



Since writing the above, I have perused Captain Herbert's valuable 

 report on the Himmalayas, so properly rescued from oblivion, and so 

 handsomely presented to the subscribers to the Journal of the Asiatic 

 Society by Mr. Torrens, and find that the author notices deposits of un- 

 stratified gravel and sand, including boulders some of three feet in dia- 

 meter, occurring in these vallies ; and also along their base in a vast 

 accumulation 192 miles long, nearly 10 broad, and sometimes up- 

 wards of 150 feet thick, and which, from being inexplicable by the 

 supposition of existing floods and streams, he calls diluvium. 



From his description, it seems to me probable, that some of these 

 deposits and their attendant phenomena have been caused by the 

 action of glaciers and debacles, the result of their melting. 



The whole of them, and the Tals or lakes upon them, are well 

 worth separate and extended investigation ; and diligent search should 

 be made on the rocks of the sides, surfaces, and outlets of the vallies, 

 for the other supposed marks of glacial action just enumerated, and 

 of which Captain Herbert has given us no information. 



Among other promising localities may be enumerated the great 

 transverse Doons, or vomitories of drainage, through which flow the 

 Ganges, Sutlej and Jumna, the Ramgunga and the Gaggur, from their 

 bases of glaciers ; the mouths and sides of the glens opening into 

 them ; the vallies of the Burral and Dhaolee, and of the Pubbur 

 near Massooleea. 



The immense bed of gravel and masses of rock called the Bhabur, 

 which stretches along the base of the mountains, succeeded at its southern 

 base by the remarkable terrace called the Terrai, both cut transversely 

 through by present river channels; and the level-surfaced gravel 

 and sand deposits locally termed Khadirs, through which many of the 

 streams run, may be particularly pointed out as subjects for detailed 

 information. Some of the mountain -streams are engulfed, according 

 to Captain Herbert, in the gravels of the Bhabur ; but probably re- 

 appear in the line of springs visible at its junction with the step of the 

 Terrai which, from its striking moistness compared with the dry 

 absorbent surface of the Bhabur, is probably a bed of some impervious 

 substance, such as clay.* 



* See Mr. Batten's valuable observations on the Terrai of Rohilcund and Kemaon, 

 Journal, Vol. Xill, p. 887. 



