PART 3.] 
Theobald: The Kumaim Lakes, 
173 
encountered. Tlie glacier wliicli brought doAvn the ‘ moraine ’ in question, descended 
in a soutborljr direction from the peak of 7,989 feet, standing at the head of the Naini 
basin, and from the opposite side from that whence the Naini glacier itself de¬ 
scended. The Talley traversed by this glacier (and along which the road to Naini 
from Kaladungi winds) is towards its head blocked, or encumbei’ed with a confused 
mass of angular blocks, which in part at least represents the old ‘moraine,’ though 
the Deoputhar ridge and the larputhar ridge on the opjjosite side arc both so 
steep that avalanches and landslips may have largely added to its original mass. 
The progressive movement, however, of the bulk of this mass can, I think, only 
have been effected by ice, as the blocks composing it arc so large and angular, the 
slope so high, and the surface so incapable of generating a large stream, from the 
water sinking engulphed in the interstices between the blocks, that fluviatile 
action is impossible. Some halfway down the valley, this mass, which I designate 
a moraine, terminates in a steep bluff, precisely resembling on a large scale an 
unfinished railway embankment, and below this lies the unnamed lake (or lakes, 
for the map shows two), across the outlet sluice of which the road is carried 
towards Naini after passing Khurpa Tal. Below this outlet sluice tlie valley 
rapidly falls (the moraine being here probably engulphed in precisely the same 
fashion as is the case below the Naini outfall), till past the old iron furnace, 
which stands nearly in its path, when the usual and characteristic components of 
a moraine are met with in profusion all round the .spot on which the lai’ge 
bungalow, beyond the furnace, is built; and it is this moraine which intercepts 
a small portion of the drainage from the Deoputhar spur, and thereby gives rise 
to the little cocked-hat, dignified by the name of Khurpa Tal, but the interest 
and value of which as bearing on the origin of the Kumaun lakes is in inverse 
ratio to its tiny dimensions. There is one point, perhaps, which calls for notice in 
connection with the above small unnamed lakes, and that is, that they lie directly 
in the path as it were of the above ‘ moraine ’ (as I regai’d it, which I have 
described as terminating in a steep bluff) and occupy an intermediate space, 
comparatively free from large blocks between the moraine above them, and the 
similar heterogenous assemblage of rocky materials, met with lower down around 
Khui'pa Tab The reason is, in my opinion, not far to seek if we reflect on the 
conditions under which such a ‘ moraine ’ was formed in so rocky and precipitous 
a gorge as that east of the Deoputhar ridge. A ‘ moraine ’ is made up in vary¬ 
ing proportions, according to the character of the rocks, of materials projected on 
to it in a more or less irregular fashion from both sides of the gorge or valley 
down which it is slowly progressing, and comparatively bald places may bo loft 
on it, wherein few or no large blocks may bo found. The same aspect of the 
surface may also be induced by the filling up of irregular dijis therein by 
ordinary rainwash, the silting up of all interstices between the larger blocks 
being the probable cause of the small unnamed lakes in question. 
Sate Tal. 
The group of Sath Tal, or seven lakes, as the name implies, is represented on 
the map by but throe—namely, a small one to the north, a large one to the south. 
