PART 4.] Theobald: Pleistocene deposits of the Northern Punjab, 
225 
of 50 feet by 6 to 8 feet bigb, and 48 feet 6 inches by 12 feet 6 inches high; the 
former a granitoid rock, the last of basalt. 
I now pass to the consideration of a clearly-written and valuable paper by 
Mr. Lydekker in Records XII, p. 15, in which the glacial question is treated at 
some length. Among general conclusions my colleague affirms that in Kashmir 
6,500 feet is about the lowest level at which “ undoubted evidence of former 
glacier action” exists. This, I think, may be true, as I have myself been struck 
with the remarkable absence of such evidence in the valley, though I never 
questioned the existence of such evidence at much lower levels in the outer hills. 
The cause of this, should the statement not require modification, is I regard 
an interesting object for future investigation. Mr, Lydekker differs also from 
Prof. Leith Adams in his failing to recognise any proofs of a glacial origin 
for the Baramula gravels, and in this I agree with my colleague. At page 30 
(Z. c.) Mr. Lydekker records his dissent from Colonel Godwin-Austen’s opinion 
that certain granitoid blocks in the Jhelum valley below Baramula have been 
brought to their present position by ice action. Here I dissent from my 
colleague, and consider that Colonel Godwin-Austen has rightly estimated the 
mode of transport of these blocks in question. In supj)ort of his view my 
colleague goes at some length into a desci’iption of the Jholum valley, which, 
being clear in language, and convoying completely my own views, I shall here 
quote in extenso. That my colleague has arrived at a different conclusion to 
myself, I attribute solely to the accident that he has not seen such a ‘ key 
section,’ as I may term it, as I was fortunate enough to discover during last 
season’s work in the valley of the Xainsukh, above Gurhi Habibula ;— 
“ At Rdmpur the alluvial formation contains gneissic blocks, some of which 
are as much as 15 feet in diameter; the whole formation is at least one hundred 
feet in thickness on the left bank of the river. The included blocks are all more 
or less rounded and water-worn, while the matrix in which they are embedded 
is here but little stratified. As we descend the river, the blocks of gneiss con¬ 
tinue to decrease in size till we come upon the sharp bend in the river below 
Rampur; here a fresh stream of gneiss blocks has come down a ti’ibutary stream 
from the second gneiss mass in the Kaj-Xag range; some of these blocks have a 
long diameter of 20 feet. 
“ Still continuing our survey down the river, we find the gneiss blocks again 
becoming smaller and smaller, and half way to TJri the alluvial deposit is seen 
to be most distinctly stratified. All the gneiss boulders have their long axes 
inclined up the stream and towards the river bed at an angle of about 30°; so 
that one of the fiat sides is opposed to the flow of the stream, as we find to be 
the case in any deposit of modern river pebbles. The summit of the alluvial 
formation is level, forming high-level jDlateaux on either side of the river. At 
Uri we find a similar plateau, some 200 feet in thickness, formed of the red 
Sirmur rocks of the neighbouring hills. The pebbles in this deposit are rounded 
and have the same relative position in regal’d to the stre.am as the gneiss blocks 
higher up. A few small gneiss blocks ax’e found in the Uri deposit.” 
Now all this I fully accept as a correct description of the Jholum terrace 
gravels and boulder deposits, for I regard it would be as one-sided in me to 
