128 MIDDLEM1SS: PHYSICAL GEOLOGY OF SUB-HIMALAYA. 



11 tion to which the older Himalayan rocks have been subjected, so the 

 " disturbance of these strata gives more positive evidence of a period 

 " of decadence of the Himalaya. I can see no explanation of these 

 "contortions but in the thrust from the mountain mass consequent on 

 11 the sinking of that mass." This was Mr. Medlicott's belief when he 

 wrote the memoir. His later remarks in the manual are more uncer- 

 tain, and he appears to leave it an open question whether the Hima- 

 laya were first contorted and upheaved in pre-Tertiary times, and 

 then upheaved again ; or upheaved first in the form of a " bosselle- 

 ment" or warp, and contorted only during the later Tertiary ages. 



It will be seen from what I have written above that I so far agree 

 with his former statement in the memoir as to believe in the distinct- 

 ness of the disturbances affecting the Himalaya and Sub-Himalaya, 

 respectively, in the part of the country examined by me ; but I look 

 upon it as one of degree and not of kind. Instead of the Himalaya 

 sinking, I think they are still growing; and that the upheaval of the 

 several bands of tertiary rocks is simply the result of a continuance 

 in later times of the same earth movements that have for many ages 

 before been upheaving the older formations of the Himalaya. 



That there are many difficult problems concerning these moun- 

 Other Hymalayan tains not yet satisfactorily disposed of, no one 

 problems. - will deny. The word " Himalaya" is extensive 



in its application, and covers such vast regions that a uniform scheme 

 of upheaval and contortion can only very doubtfully be applied to 

 every part of it. There are one or two points that always have, and 

 always will have, the greatest prominence in the consideration of any 

 such scheme. These points are (i) the undisturbed position of 

 Siwalik strata at 12,000 feet in the Hundes ; (2) the presence of 

 numrrulitics in a rather more elevated position near the head-waters 

 of the Indus, highly disturbed, and resting unconformably upon dis- 

 turbed gneiss j 1 (3) the great sequence of unaltered sedimentary 



1 Mr. T. D. La Touche, Deputy Superintendent, Geological Survey of India, has 

 recently described (Rec, G. S. I., Vol. XXi, p. 160) nummulitic bearing strata in Zdnskar 

 at an elevation of 18,500 feet, the greatest altitude at which these strata have hitherto 

 been obtained in situ. 



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