184 Mr. Hinds on Climate in connexion 



at all from the shade. It is not then surprising that chains 

 of mountains will offer a difference of thousands of feet on 

 opposite flanks, in the limits of cultivation, or the growth of 

 members of its flora. In addition to the obliquity of the sun's 

 rays^ when they really do reach the flora, their visit is for so 

 short a period of the day, that their influence is hardly felt 

 till they are about to disappear. 



Some illustrations will show the practical advantages arising 

 from aspect. In the mountains on the borders of Dumfries- 

 shire and Clydesdale, the difference is marked between the 

 north and south faces. In the former the snow often lies on 

 the ground, and the sheep are fed with hay, whilst the flocks 

 on the southern sides still find pasture. Esmark has observed 

 in the Dofrines, that those sides which are exposed to the 

 north and north-east have the snow line at 3000 feet above 

 the level of the sea, whilst on the south and south-east de- 

 cUvities, where the exposure is so much more favourable, it 

 attains an elevation of 7000 feet. In the Valais, one side of 

 the alpine mountains is covered with perennial ice and snow, 

 the opposite supporting a smiling vegetation of orchards and 

 vineyards. Another part of the central Alps has been no- 

 ticed to produce oats on its southern aspect at 3300 feet, and 

 on the northern they were scarcely growing at 1800 feet. 



The Himma-leh mountains offer numerous modifications 

 of climate arising from local causes. Their examination would 

 furnish illustrations of almost all the modifying causes found 

 in the mountain ranges of other parts of the world ; not being 

 merely a barrier of elevated land intersecting a large country, 

 but consisting of numerous minor ranges of mountains crowded 

 together, pursuing at times all directions, and presenting all 

 exposures : often, too, at great elevations extensive valleys are 

 displayed, enjoying a climate unusually favourable. Indeed, 

 the space occupied by the Himma-leh mountains embraces a 

 great extent of country, both in length and breadth, as even 

 the most constricted parts are many miles across. The ge- 

 neral statement is, that there is a difference of 3000 feet be- 

 tween the two flanks, in the elevation to which cultivation 

 and habitations extend. Though in the northern hemisphere 

 the difference is in favour of the northern side, here corn- 

 fields and the dwellings of men cease at 13,000 feet, which on 

 the south are limited to 10,000 feet. This seems to be the 

 general difference, whilst causes in particular places will be 

 in action to increase or diminish it. Circumstances operating 

 on both sides of the chain have been brought forward, to ac- 

 count for this departure from the usual course of things ; one 

 will perhaps be found enough, and it consists merely in the 



