THE HIMALAYAN MOUNTAINS. 33° 
on the southern face, but they mention that it would be melted at this height a month 
later. Capt. Herbert gives thirteen thousand feet as the limit of snow on _ northern 
face in the beginning of October. 
To the eastward the general elevation of the country must be raised, as it is nearer the 
sources of the great rivers and the passes are higher. The Beans Pass was estimated by 
Capt. Webb, who found snow at the.end of May, at seventeen thousand five hundred 
and ninety-eight feet, and more recently, by the Editor of the Gleanings in Science, at 
sixteen thousand eight hundred and forty-four feet, from the observations of a traveller 
in October 1828, who had only some new snow, but no old beds to cross. The Neetee — 
Pass, elevated sixteen thousand eight hundred and fourteen feet, had no snow on it 
when visited by Capt. Webb, nor any on a ridge three hundred feet above, whence the 
lower point of congelation was estimated at not less than seventeen thousand feet on the 
northern side of the Himalayan Mountains. 
In the neighbourhood of these passes the’snow does not entirely disappear until July, 
_ which, with half of August, constitutes the summer, a season when, on the southern 
face, rain frequently falls; autumn extends to the end of September, and winter com- 
mences with October. . Above the limit of forest, which is composed of the same oaks, 
pines, yew, birch, and poplar as found to the westward, Cypress and Junipers are 
found (Cupressus torulosa, Juniperus communis and squarrosa), with Rhubarb, Gooseberry, 
Rose-bushes, and a species of Astragalus, the furze of travellers. The grains cultivated 
in the nearest villages are the same as have been elsewhere enumerated as those peculiar to 
such heights. Cultivation was found by Capt. Webb in this direction above eleven thou- 
sand five hundred feet of elevation, though not above ten thousand by Capt. Gerard 
near the Western Passes; but here the occurrence of loftier mountains to the southward 
produces some of the same effects as are witnessed on the northern face of the 
Himalayas,—a confinement of all the solar rays imparted, and their reverberation from 
two sides, instead of one of a mountain, by which, and by the general raising of the 
vallies, the lower limit of congelation becomes considerably elevated, and with it the 
limit of vegetation, as well as of villages and cultivation. This is still better exemplified 
if we. notice the highest cultivation in the mountains which intervene between the 
snowy range and the plains of India, where we shall see that the height of cultivation 
diminishes as we proceed to the outer range of mountains. Thus: in the line of the 
geological section, we have wheat near Rol at ten thousand, at Bumpta on Urukta at 
eight thousand, and above Chowras on Choor not much above seven thousand feet of 
elevation, while on Mussooree, the most external range, I have seen it but little above 
six thousand feet, though parts of the range are fifteen hundred and two thousand 
feet higher. This must in‘some measure be ascribed to the diminished height of 
mountains lowering the sources of irrigation, but principally 1 conceive to the effects 
of the breeze, which always blows up the mountains from the plains, and which, besides 
being very drying, has its capacity for heat increased as its density is diminished, and ~ 
thus prevents the accumulation of heat on the mountain sides over which it passes. 
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