36 Meyen on the Distribution of Vegetation on the 



the vegetation, and all its dependent relations ; and we need not 

 therefore wonder that the height of the snow-line, and that of 

 the highest vegetation in the country, should not rise 2000 feet 

 Iiigher than on the Himalayah range ; the difference of the la- 

 titude of the two mountain masses indicating exactly this dif- 

 ference in height of 2000 feet. 



It is generally regarded as an ascertained fact, that the vege- 

 tation reaches a higher level on the Himalayah than on any 

 other mountains of the earth ; but, as I shall immediately show, 

 this conclusion ought to be very much limited. The boundary 

 of eternal snow is certainly very high in some portions of the 

 Himalayah, especially in north-eastern Kunawar ; no less a 

 height can be assigned to it than 17,000 feet, although at some 

 j)oints snow is found at a somewhat lower level. At the pass of 

 Keubrung, at a height of 18,300 feet, only a little snow was met 

 with, and the heat of the sun during the summer was extremely 

 oppressive ; Gerard found no snow at one place in north-east- 

 ern Kunawar at a height of 20,000 feet ; and on the moun- 

 tains of the Plateau which proceeds towards Tartary, and 

 which itself has a height of 16,000 feet, no snow was met with 

 at a height of 19,000 feet; indeed the snow-line is so elevated 

 at these passes, that travellers cross them during summer and 

 winter. It is much to be regretted, that no hygromotrical ob- 

 servations have been made at these heights, and that we possess 

 no information as to the winds ; an extraordinary dryness of the 

 air must evidently be the cause of the want of the snow, and 

 these very great heights of the snow-line are by no means to be 

 regarded as normal. This great elevation of the snow-line is 

 so much the more striking, because the mountain masses lie at 

 the most northern limit of the sub-tropical zone, where, there- 

 fore, according to the relative position of the sun to the earth, 

 the snow-line ought to be lower than within the tropics. If we 

 compare with these I'esults the heights of the snow-line in the 

 Peruvian Cordil'era, we find, according to the already existing 

 numerous observations, that, in general, for the summits of the 

 simple chain, the height of the snow-line is to be estimated at 

 from 15,700 to 16,000 feet, according to Humboldt and Basil 

 Hall ; but that for the summits and the plateau in southern 

 Peru, the height amounts to 16,500 and even 17,351 feet. The 



