98 Captain Thomas Hutton's Remarks on the 



mate difference at 3,000 feet.* The same gentleman likewise states 

 that ** on the Tibetan side of the chain, the (approximate) heights 

 will be found to be 20,000 feet on the south, and 18,000 to 18,500 

 on the north face of the same hill." These observations then 

 appear to establish the fact, that from the southern snowy range to 

 the northern or Tibetan one, the snow-line is always, on every hill 

 or range, the outer ones inclusive, at a lower elevation on the 

 northern than on the southern slopes. 



But Gerard proceeds to tell us, that *' the cheeks (of the Borendo 

 pass, on the Bissehir range) are perfectly naked long before this time 

 of the year (August 1822), and the trough formed by them, although 

 sheeted with snow at the summer solstice, is now (August) bare rock 

 down to the ravine on the south side, with the exception of some 

 accumulations, which will be very much diminished before another 

 month ; and some seasons, as in the former (1821) the whole face of 

 the declivity without a patch of snow. On the north there lies 

 a vast field which never dissolves."! 



So again. Captain Jack says, " I crossed the Borendo ghat on the 

 25th September 1842, and there was no snow at all on the southern 

 aspect, or on the very summit of the pass ; but descending a few 

 yards on the northern aspect to the base of a rock which was nearly 

 perpendicular, we had the pleasure of seeing our baggage, coolies, 

 &c., descending most rapidly, by their own gravity, upon an un- 

 broken bed of snow, extending 250 to 300 yards in one slope, 

 forming an angle of about 45°." 



Here, then, we have different observers in different years, prov- 

 ing that on the Bissehir range the snow lies deeply and extensively 

 on its northern face, even when there is none on its southern aspect ; 

 we have, consequently, the very same phenomena apparent, from the 

 outer snowy range up to the northernmost one, proving that the 

 local facts of Kumaon are not facts in the western parts of the 

 Himalaya, and showing moreover, since the true southern aspect of 

 the chain becomes denuded of snow, that while there is a snow-line 

 on the northern or Tibetan aspect, there is no permanent snow-line 

 on the southern face of the Bissehir range. 



It is however due to my opponent to state, that I am not aware 

 that the elevation of the passes on the Bissehir range have ever 

 been correctly ascertained ; for although Dr Gerard has somewhere 

 stated the cheeks of the Borendo pass to be upwards of 16,000 feet, 

 yet the truth of that measurement has been since called in question. 

 It may therefore eventually be found, that the elevation of that 

 pass is below the snow- line, which would account for the disappear- 



* J. A. S., No. 205, p. 695, for 1849, and Jameson's Edinburgh New Phi- 

 losophical Journal, vol. xlviii. p. 243. 



t Loyd and Gerard's Tours in the Himalaya, p. 327. 



