SnmO'Line in the Himalaya. 101 



the black range, rising from those plains, retains the snow on the 

 northern, even when there is none on the southern slope, — a fact 

 which, while it militates strongly against Lieut. Strachey's views, 

 tends much to corroborate Captain Cunningham's observations. 

 But granting that Lieut. Strachey were correct in these particulars, 

 does it necessarily follow, that what is fact in the neighbourhood 

 of Kumaon may not be pure fiction when applied to the western 

 tracts ? Can the assumptions of one who confesses that he never set 

 foot within the limits of the district where his opponent's observa- 

 tions were made, in any way affect those observations ? He is evi- 

 dently disposed to disregard the question of one of his own supporters, 

 who asks, — " How can any facts of one observer in one place falsify 

 the facts of another observer in another place .?" * Now I and my 

 supporters have long since received Captain Webb's Kumaon facts 

 as true, when applied to the places wherein he observed them, and 

 we merely, in return, claim the right of believing the evidence of 

 our own senses, when wandering over other tracts of the Himalaya. 

 I repeat, then, that, as far as the evidence yet goes, the pheno- 

 mena observable in Kumaon are opposed to those which have been 

 observed to the westward ; and in rejecting Lieut. Strachey's theory 

 as insufficient, I much prefer adhering to Humboldt's until a 

 better is offered. Lieut. Strachey denies that the radiation of heat 

 from the plains of Tibet exercises any but a trifling influence on 

 the snows of the northern aspect ; still his denial rests on no better 

 basis than that of an assumption, for no proof whatever is pro- 

 duced in support of the opinion, save that there is snow on the 

 Tibetan face of the black range, when there is none on the southern 

 face. But this is really nothing to the purpose, for it merely 

 shows that the direct rays of the southern sun, united to the 

 greater humidity of the atmosphere, and the effects of the violent 

 southerly winds, have a far more powerful effect in uncovering the 

 southern aspect than the heat from the plains of Tibet has upon the 

 snow of the north. The true question, however, does not relate to 

 the north and south aspect of the black range, but to the aspects of 

 the water-shed ; and in regard to it we are told, that, while on the 

 south the snow-line is about 15,000 or 15,500 feet, on the north it 

 is 18,000 to 19,000 feet. Now the height of the northern ranges 

 above the plains of Tibet does not appear, on an average, to be more 

 than 3,000 to 8,000 feet, if so much ; while on the south, the 

 peaks rise to 16,000 and 18,000 feet above the plains of India, 

 from which, moreover, they are separated by a broad intervening 

 belt of wooded mountains, averaging from 6,000 to 8,000 feet above 

 those plains. Consequently it does not appear very difficult to per- 

 ceive that radiation from the northern plains must affect the snow 



* Cal. Journ. Nat. Hist., No. 19, p. 383. 



