fiS Records of the Geolofcal Survey/ of India. [voi,. xii. 
child (Q. J. G. S,, vol. XXXI, p. 99) “has afiectcd so little, that by far the 
greater part of the present sui’facc-configuration has in one way or another 
resulted from the former presence of the great ice sheet.” 
Bearing this prineiide in juind, I looked around me, during my recent tour, 
for the evidences of foi-juer glaciation. I do not know whether any one has 
ever supposed that the Himalayas were co\ oi’ed during the last glacial j^eriod 
with an ice cap, but I may note that whilst I saw nothing to favor such an idea, 
I saw much to negative it. The contour of the hills and valleys in those parts 
of the interior of the Himalayas that I have visited is sharp and angular, and 
where rounded outlines are seen, they are sufficiently explained by the action of 
sub-aerial forces on comparatively soft and friable rocks. 
But setting aside the idea of an ice cap, the question romain.s—was there 
formerly any great extension of local glaciers, and if so, within what limits ? To 
this question I answer that, whilst I saw evidence of the former extension of 
existing glaciers, I saw nothing during my tour to lead me to believe that these 
glaciers had ever, within a reasonable geological period, extended lower than 
11,000 or 12,000 feet above the sea. 
On looking dowm from a high vantage ground, deep narrow side r alloys may 
be seen on the Upper Sutlej, below that level, in which the course of the streams 
flowing through them is so sinuous that the sharp headlands formed by their 
sudden bends interlace like the nuts of cogwheels working into each other. 
The flow of ice in a glacier being analogous to the flow of water in a river 
and its tributaries, a grand glacier filling the valley of the Sutlej would not have 
prevented the flow of ice from the side glaciers into the main glacial stream. 
But had these side valleys ever been filled with glaciers, the sharp interlacing 
headlands would have been gradually worn down to smooth surfaces, and the 
valleys straightened and widened. 
The only valley in the Himalayas I have j'et seen that is shaped like a 
glacier valley is the Spiti valley. The greater part of it is more than 11,000 feet 
above the sea, and its bottom, especially in the upper half of the valley, is broad 
and flat, whilst the bounding mountain sides rise abruptly in a wall-like manner 
at a high angle, and send no sharp projecting spurs into the valley. But if, as 
1 think highly probable, the upper portion of the valley owes its shape, in 
pai't at least, to the action of ice, the period dui-ing which a glacier flowed down 
the straight course of the Spiti river must have been very remote; for I noticed 
about half the way iip the valley a side valley i^artaking of the character of those 
described above; whilst the flat boulder bed which, in the upper ^-alley, rises high 
above the rivei’, seems to owe its origin in part to the action of the river, and in 
part to talus shot down from the bounding cliffs. It is not of glacial Origin. 
I now proceed to note the evidence which I obtained of the former extension 
of glacier's. At the head of the Spiti valley the Lichu river flows down from the 
peaks that surround the Kirnzam pass, into the Spiti. There is probably a glacier 
up the side valley crowned by the snowy jrcak 20,581 feet high, but there is now no 
