IV.—The Absence of Glacial Phenomena in large Parts of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, Etc

Extract

In some papers which you have done me the favour to print in the GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE, I have endeavoured to apply a new touchstone to test the age of high mountain chains and of land of high elevation, namely, the presence or absence of distinct and prominent traces of former glaciation, and I have argued that where such traces are not forthcoming in a very unmistakable manner, we are justified in concluding that these highlands have been elevated since the so-called Glacial Period. I have endeavoured to apply the touchstone in question to the Ural and Altai Mountains, to the Thian Shan and Himalaya ranges in Asia, and to the great Cordillera which binds together the two continents forming the New World. I wish to make my survey more complete by an examination of an interesting area comprising Eastern Europe and South Western Asia.