192 Scientific Intelligence — Miscellaneous. 



brious than is commonly supposed, and seldom so cool as to admit of 

 European out-door labour. Everywhere we encounter miserably dis- 

 eased objects amongst the natives, much to be ascribed to filthy habits, 

 no doubt; and up to 5500 or 6000 feet, the amount of sickness 

 amongst Europeans, though not of a serious description, is consider- 

 able, and of a nature which singularly indisposes and unfits the sub- 

 ject for occupation. Such, too, is the power of the sun at all eleva- 

 vations, from April till October, between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., that 

 Europeans, can rarely, with impunity, brave its rays. The mean 

 annual temperature, at 7500 feet elevation, is nearly that of London ; 

 but the fact that few of the trees indigenous at that altitude, can 

 stand an English winter, points to a signal difference of conditions in 

 the distribution of Himalayan heat and moisture. Dr Royle well 

 observes, after the astronomers, that, in advancing north from the 

 equator, the sun passes over 12° in the first month, 8° in the second, 

 and only 3^° in the third ; and that, hence, from his longer presence 

 there, and the greatly increased length of the day, the heat is more 

 intense at the tropic than at the equator ; at the former the sun is 

 more or less vertical for about six days only ; at the latter for nearly 

 two months. The distance of the Himalaya from the northern tro- 

 pic is not great ; and where we have a southern exposure, is more 

 than compensated ; there indeed, the sun's rays strike vertically with 

 intolerable power, augmenting in the ratio of our ascent, so that one 

 is absolutely scorched while walking on a glacier. What a contrast 

 also between the generally serene brilliant sky, and extremely dry 

 atmosphere of the Himalya, during eight or nine months of the year, 

 and the cloudy canopy which so generally rests over the British 

 Islands ! The sun's arrival at the Tropic of Cancer is marked 

 here by that of the rainy season, when the previously dry 

 atmosphere is suddenly, and for three months, saturated with mois- 

 ture, with a sun potent enough to knock down an ox, when he does 

 shew himself, which is not seldom. During this period, one is al- 

 ternately baked and chilled half a dozen times during the twenty- 

 four hours, and that not in the low confined valleys, but upon per- 

 fectly open ridges, such as Almorah, where it is, consequently, a 

 matter of some difficulty to adjust one's clothing to the frequent 

 fluctuations of temperature, the annual change of dress which Mr 

 Fortune describes amongst the Chinese being here diurnal. The re- 

 sult at Almorah, Kussowlee, &c., appears to be as much, though not 

 so dangerous sickness, as in the much abused plains. 



If the above be a true view of the case, it appears chimerical to 

 hope that the Himalaya can ever maintain an independent body of 

 colonists, such as might supersede the necessity of drawing recruits 

 from Europe, or such as, on any emergency, could be brought down 

 to act in the defence of the Lower Empire. This is a very different 

 question from that of the fitness of the mountains for sanitary 

 settlements occupied by those in the service of Government, and 



