RECORDS 
OF THE 
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 
Part 3.] 1880. [August. 
The Kumaun Lakes, iy W. Theobald, Deputy Stiperintendent, Geological 
Survey of India, 
I cannot better preface my own notes on tbe Kiimaun lakes, than by briefly 
adverting to the views regarding their origin, propounded by my colleague 
Mr. Ball in the Becords of the Geological Survey, Vol. XT, part 2, page 1?4; 
since differing so essentially, as I do, from them, it will be more convenient to spe¬ 
cify at the beginning wherein this divergence of ojiinion consists, than to break 
the thread of my own description by constantly-recurring allusions to Mr. Ball’s 
paper. 
I make no affectation of approaching the discussion of the vexed question 
of the origin of the Kumaun lakes without any bias for any particular theory, 
since believing, as I do, in the strongly presumptive universality of glacial 
conditions during the great ice age, the result of cosmical rather than local 
cau.ses, it would be absurd in mo to disavow any expectation of finding ti'aces 
of such conditions within tlie llimalayan region, of all others, or to deny that 
such conditions may not be hold to afford a plausible prfM«/ocie explanation 
of the origin of these lakes, deserving of all our resj^ect, till it can bo demon¬ 
strated that such a presumption is eiToncous. Such an error, supposing it to bo 
one, is, or should bo, very capable of disproof, and I understand Mr. Ball’s paper 
to be such an attempted disproof, but, in my opinion, an unsuccessful one. 
The Kumaun lakes have so many points of resemblance in common, both 
as regards elevation, physical surroundings, and geogi-axdiical arrangement, that 
it seems not unreasonable to assume a common origin for them all, so that I shall 
attach less importance to the elucidation of the histoiy of those presenting ob¬ 
scure features, than to the endoa-\'our to establish satisfactorily the origin of one 
or more of thorn ; and I herein differ- from Mr. Ball, in that, whilst he can discern 
no conclusive proof of glacial action in any of those visited by him, I consider 
