Scientific confirmations of Old Testament history . of loess may easily have been de-rived from the Alpine glaciers, which were formerlymuch more extensive than now. So confident was Professor James Geikie of the gla-cial origin of the extensive loess deposits of China, that,in the third edition of his Great Ice Age, he repre-sented upon his map an extensive glaciated region onthe borders of Mongolia, near Kalgan. My own per-sonal investigations in 1900, however, revealed a totalabsence of the marks of glaciation over that area, aswell as over that of the Vitim plateau east of LakeBaikal, whic
Scientific confirmations of Old Testament history . of loess may easily have been de-rived from the Alpine glaciers, which were formerlymuch more extensive than now. So confident was Professor James Geikie of the gla-cial origin of the extensive loess deposits of China, that,in the third edition of his Great Ice Age, he repre-sented upon his map an extensive glaciated region onthe borders of Mongolia, near Kalgan. My own per-sonal investigations in 1900, however, revealed a totalabsence of the marks of glaciation over that area, aswell as over that of the Vitim plateau east of LakeBaikal, which he had covered with extinct glaciers. If,therefore, the loess of China is of glacial origin, wemust look to some more distant source. It has been suggested to me by Dr. N. O. Hoist, ofthe Swedish Geological Survey, that the glacial originof the Chinese loess may still be maintained by lookingto the high mountains of Central Asia for its source*As is well known, extensive glaciers are found in allthe higher altitudes of the Himalaya and Tian Shan. 300 Evidence of a Deluge in Asia. Mountains, but my investigations proved that theseAsiatic glaciers never extended down into the plains toanything like the extent with which the Alpine glaciersinvaded Switzerland and Northern Italy; for, in adrive of eight hundred miles along the northern baseof the Tian Shan Mountains at an elevation of abouttwo thousand feet above sea-level, no moraines what-ever were encountered, while, two years later, ProfessorWilliam M. Davis and Mr. Ellsworth Huntingtoncrossed the Tian Shan Mountains from Kalgan toVerni, and found likewise, by actual observation, thatat no time had glaciers extended down the flanks ofthese mountains below the level of seven thousand , loess accumulated to an immense extent about thebase of both sides of the range, occurring in speciallylarge amount wherever the streams which head in theglaciers debouch upon the plain. These facts open the way to regarding the loess
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