256 CLIMATE OF HIMALAYA. 



temperate shrubs, of such genera as Rosa Rubus, Viburnum, 

 Eerberis, Spiraea, Lonicera, Indigofera, Prinsepia, Salix, Daphne, 

 and others. 



The view from Simla presents a very marked contrast with 

 that from Darjiling. The general outline of the mountains is 

 very much the same, but they are more rocky, and very generally 

 bare ; the forests, which to the north are dense and abundant, 

 occupying chiefly the north slopes of the mountains, so that in 

 looking from the south the crest of the ridge^s only are seen to 

 be wooded. The scenery, therefore, is more diversified than in 

 the eastern Himalaya, and abstracting the snowy mountains, 

 more pleasing to the eye. 



Between tlie two extremes which I have described, every 

 intermediate form may of course be met with, the law of altera- 

 tion being apparently the following, that in advancing westward 

 towards less humid climates, the lower hills, from about 6000 to 

 2000 feet, become more and more bare and grassy, while the 

 lower levels and the base of the mountains retain a greater 

 degree of damp and are clotlied with forest. It would appear 

 also that above 6000 or 7000 feet, up to 10,000 or 11, 000 feet, 

 at which elevation mountain ranges sensibly interrupt the passage 

 of the moist atmospliere, tlie temi)erate ranges are more moist 

 than those below them, which do not collect the clouds, and 

 have a higher temperature, and consequently more powerful sun. 

 To the eastward of Sikkim, the same phenomena are very well 

 marked, the lower ranges being extremely dry and arid, while 

 above 7000 feet, dense forest and a humid atmosphere prevail, 

 just as in the mountains of Sikkim. 



The valleys of the larger rivers which traverse the Himalaya 

 from north to south have, of course, a much lower elevation 

 than the mountains by which they are surrounded ; and up them, 

 therefore, tropical vegetation penetrates very far into the interior. 

 In the extreme west, the valleys of the Indus and Chenab, and 

 even of the Sutlej, are up to the height of 5000 feet, which they 

 do not attain till more than 100 miles from their exit into the 

 plains, hot, dry, and tropical. Further east, the tropical forest 

 stretches far up tlie valleys, and they are only bare for a small 

 portion of their extent, and in the humid atmosphere of Sikkim 

 they are densely wooded throughout. In that province, the 

 valleys of the Teesta and its tributaries carry tropical vegetation 

 far into the interior, almost within a day's journey of the line of 

 perpetual snow, and the luxuriance of the dense and dripping 

 forest requires to be seen to be understood. 



The temperate region of the Himalaya may be said to extend 

 from about 5000 feet, or a little above it, to the upper limit of 

 arboreous vegetation; which, to the westward, is about 12,000 



