278 CLIMATIC CONDITIONS OF THE GLACIAL EPOCH. 



snow. Patches of snow [Schneeflecke] remain on many of the monntains 

 throngh the ■whole snmmer, but not one of tliem has a permanent snow 

 covering. In Norway, according to Wahlenberg, the snow line is reached, 

 between the parallels of 67° and 67^°, at 3,800 feet, and according to L. von 

 Buch, between 70° and 71^°, at 3,300 feet; on the coast in fact, in 71|°, it is 

 found at 2,200 feet. It cannot therefore but appear strange that in the Ural, 

 in latitude 68°, not far from the shores of the Arctic Ocean, from which in 

 summer, whenever a north or northwest wind blows, thick fogs and cold are 

 spread over the Gnetja and its vicinity, the snow does not remain perma- 

 nently [nicht halten kann] although covei'ing the adjacent tundra to the 

 depth of several feet, while the thermometer often sinks below the freezing- 

 point of mercury. The reason may perhaps be found in the narrowness of 

 the chain, which on both sides rises from the tundra with precipitous walls, 

 terminating in sharp peaks and pinnacles."* 



Even the Pae-Choi range which extends in a northwesterly direction from 

 the northern extremity of the Ural, and is prolonged on the island of Nova 

 Zembla, is free from permanent snow and glaciers, although it lies beyond 

 the Arctic Circle, and rises to an elevation of a thousand feet and more. 



We turn now to the consideration of the great elevated mass of Central 

 Asia, where, active as have been the geological and geogi'aphical explora- 

 tions of the past few years, much yet remains (o be done before the structure 

 and relations of the various mountain chains and plateaux are fully made 

 out. The S3stems of ranges of which a brief notice will here be taken are, 

 in fact, portions of the exterior rim of this vast elevated area, and it is, in 

 general, only these outside regions of which something is known in detail. 

 Of much of the interior, and especially of the part which borders on the 

 western confines of China, almost nothing has as yet been made out, exce])t 

 in roughest outline. 



The southern edge of the elevated region of Central Asia is formed by 

 the Himalayan ranges, which in several parallel folds sweep in a majestic 

 curve from the east towards the northwest. Between these folds, and occa- 

 sionally breaking transversely across them. How tlie three great rivers of 

 India, — the Indus, the Ganges, and the Brahmapootra. At tlie northwestern 

 extremity of the Himalayan i-anges the Pamir Plateau forms a grand nodal 



* Dur nordliche Ural, uiid das Kiistengebirge Pae-Choi. Untersuclit und besehrieben von eiiier in den Jalircn 

 1847, 1848, 1849, und 1850 dmeh die Kaiserlicb-Russischc geographische Gesellscbaft ausgeriisteter Expedition. 

 2 Biinde, 4to. St. retersbui-g, 1S56. P.nnd II. jip. 191, 102. 



