Snow- Line in the Himalaya. 99 



ance of the snow from the southern aspect. I am quite willing, then, 

 to give Lieut. Strachey the benefit of the doubt ; while, at the same 

 time, should I be driven from my first position in Bissehir, I shall 

 take my stand with Dr Lord on the Hindu Cush, and maintain 

 (which is in fact the only point for which I have really contended), 

 that the doctrine on which Humboldt relied, as applicable to the 

 whole extent of the Himalaya, cannot be so accepted. Feeling satis- 

 fied that he had discomfited all former observers in India, and thus 

 converted his local into general facts, Lieut. Strachey next proceeds 

 to run a tilt with Humboldt himself, who had accounted for the 

 greater elevation of the snow-line on the north of Kumaon, by sup- 

 posing that the radiation of heat from the plains of Tibet contributed 

 mainly to produce that effect. With this very simple and natural 

 inference our author is dissatisfied, and he ** therefore attempts to 

 supplant it with a theory of his own. He says, that as radiation 

 from the plains of Tibet does not produce the greater elevation of 

 the northern snow-line, that effect must be occasioned by the dimi- 

 nished quantity of snow that falls on the northern, as compared to 

 the southern part of the chain." Now this, if it be intended to 

 apply likewise to the district of Bissehir, becomes a perfect riddle ; 

 for, if less snow falls on the north than on the south, how is it that 

 there is always snow on the northern long after it has disappeared 

 from the southern aspects of the higher ranges of the western tracts ? 

 Are we to believe that the greater the quantity the sooner it melts ? 



Even if restricted to the neighbourhood of Kumaon, the theory 

 would be totally unsatisfactory, for the small quantity of snow on 

 the north, if not acted on by radiation of heat from the plains of 

 Tibet, nor melted by the rains of the monsoon, would last, at the 

 very least, as long as double the quantity on the northern slope, 

 where it is exposed both to the direct rays of the sun and to the 

 destructive influence of the heavy periodical rains ; and this appears 

 to be very satisfactorily proved by Lieut. Strachey's own remarks 

 on the black range, which, rising immediately from the plains of 

 Tibet, retains snow on its northern aspect when there is none what- 

 ever on the south. But when to the effects of the above agents we 

 add the fact, that the violent southerly winds of winter have a ten- 

 dency to keep the southern slopes free from snow, and to accumulate 

 it in drift on the north, we appear to have every fact leading to the 

 conclusion, that the snow will, as a general rule, be found longer and 

 deeper on the north than on the south ; and Captain Cunningham 

 has stated, that when (even in winter) there was little or no snow 

 on southern aspects, it was sometimes ^^ four feet thick"'' on the 

 north ! 



The very admission, therefore, that the northern destructive 

 agents exert little influence on the snow, would of itself be suflS- 

 cient to overthrow thus much of Lieut. Strachey's theory ; for if 

 those agents which drive the snow to a certain elevation are removed, 



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