192 Scientific Intelligence. — Meteorology. 



16° Fahrenheit, and, during the day, the rays of the sun were 

 so hot as to be inconvenient, and yet the waters in tlie lakes 

 and rivers were frozen during the night, but were free from 

 ice at two o'clock in the afternoon. By means of artificial ir- 

 rigation, and the action of solar heat, large quantities of rye 

 were raised at this immense height, some of the fields being at 

 14,900 feet. Dr Gerard gives his opinion, that cultivation might 

 be carried as high as from 16,000 to 17,000 feet. The goats 

 bred in this region are the finest in the country, and are of that 

 species whose wool is used for the. manufacture of shawls. At 

 a height of 15,500 feet, quantities of fossil shells are found on 

 calcareous rocks, upon strata of granite and pulverised schist : 

 they consist of mussels, and others of various forms and dimen- 

 sions. To the north of the frontier of Kinnaour, Dr Gerard 

 attained a height of more than 20,000 feet, without crossing 

 the perpetual snow. At one o'clock in the afternoon, the ther- 

 mometer was at 27° of Fahrenheit. Notwithstanding this ex- 

 treme elevation, the action of the sun had an unpleasant ef- 

 fect, though in the shade the air was freezing. The aspect of 

 the surrounding regions was sublime and terrible ; and, on the 

 frontier, a ridge of snow was perceptible. In these regions, 

 which for a long time were inaccessible, Mr Gerard met with 

 one of the most intrepid philologists known in Hungary, named 

 Cosma de Kords. This traveller, after advancing towards the 

 centre of Asia, arrived at Kinnaour, in Thibet, where he fixed 

 himself in the monastery of Kanum, and lived among the monks 

 of the Lamaic rehgion. Aided by a learned Lama, he made 

 o-reat progress in the study of the literature of Thibet, and dis- 

 covered an encyclopaedia in forty-four volumes, which treated of 

 the arts and sciences. The medical part of this large work 

 forms five volumes. The art of lithography has been practised 

 at the principal city of Thibet from time immemorial, and it 

 has been used to display the anatomy of the different parts of 

 the human body. It appears that science and letters, flying 

 from the tyranny of the caste of the Brahmins, abandoned the 

 plains of Hindostan, and took refuge on the mountains of Thi- 

 bet, where, until the present time, they remained totally un- 

 known to the rest of the world. 



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