124 Report of the Magnetic Survey of India. [No. 2, 



Amongst the results of our observations we may briefly mention 

 two points. 



23rd. — We have collected many proofs that, as we formerly main- 

 tained, in accordance with Professor T. Forbes' views, the original 

 stratification of the snow which fills the upper part of the glacier 

 basins, is perfectly destroyed during the process of the transform- 

 ation of the snow and neves into glacier ice ; the blue bands and 

 ogives of the glacier, properly speaking have no connection with 

 the former stratification of the snow. 



24th. — At several glaciers, especially at the great Ibi Gamin 

 glacier, we found the curious phenomenon which we formerly de- 

 scribed in the Alps, under the name moraines de neve ; that is to 

 say, we observed in several instances, that different affluents of one 

 glacier were separated, not by the layers of stones called moraines, 

 but by a small band of neves squeezed in between the two affluents. 

 Lower down in the course of the glacier when the neves disappeared, 

 they remained nevertheless distinctly separated by considerable 

 depression between them ; moreover, the individuality of each affluent 

 was proved by a perfectly independent arrangement of the blue 

 bands and ogives. This phenomenon shows well, that the heaps of 

 rocks which generally lie along the line of demarcation between 

 two affluents of a glacier, are quite of a superficial nature, and that 

 the real separation is entirely due to the interior structure of both 

 tributaries. 



25th. As a general phenomenon we must finally mention that, 

 on all the glaciers of the Himalayas which we examined, with 

 scarcely one exception, we found most evident proofs that they are 

 at present smaller than they were at some former period. We 

 constantly found heaps of moraines at a distance of from several 

 hundred to some thousand feet, in a few instances even of some 

 English miles, from the present ends of glaciers ; the height and 

 thickness of the ice had also been proportionally larger. The 

 Thibetan glaciers afford peculiar facilities for the investigation of 

 these phenomena. Their moraines consist principally of fine gneiss 

 rocks brought down from the higher mountains. The ancient moraines 

 of white gneiss deposited upon dark sedimentary schists, can be 

 very distinctly traced to a distance of from four to five miles from 



