Snow-Line in the Himalaya. 335 



have done, that at an elevation not 150 feet less great, and 

 within a mile of this spot, said to be at the limit of constant 

 congelation, is situated Milam, one of the largest villages in 

 Kumaon, where crops of wheat, barley, buckwheat, and 

 mustard, are regularly ripened every year ; and that no snow 

 is to be found in the neighbourhood in August or September, 

 at an elevation of at least 16,000 feet,* or 4500 feet above 

 the spot alluded to ; it is evident that M. Colebrooke either 

 used the term limit of snow in a sense very different ft'om 

 that now applied to it, or has been left altogether in the 

 dark as to those facts on which alone an opinion of any value 

 could be formed. 



I am without any means of discovering whether Captains 

 Webb or Hodgson ever published any distinct opinions as to 

 the height of the snow-line, but it appears probable that the 

 information to which M. Colebrooke alludes is simply their 

 record of the heights of places. At all events, however, their 

 evidence must be considered of little value, as they neither of 

 them knew what a glacier was. Captain Webb, as we have 

 seen, talks of the Gori emerging from the snow, when we 

 know that in reality it rises from a glacier. Captain Hodgson 

 falls into a similar error in his description of the source of 

 the Ganges (Vide Asiatic Besearches, vol. xiv., pp. 114-117). 

 He says " the Bhagirati or Ganges issues from under a very 

 low arch at the foot of the grand snow-bed ;'' and from the 

 almost exact coincidence of the heights, it is plain that this 

 is his limit of snow. There is not, however, the slightest 

 doubt that the low arch was merely the terminal cave of a 

 glacier, and that it was far below the lower limit of perpetual 

 snow, though when Captain Hodgson was there in the spring 

 the place was probably snowy enough. 



A. Gerard. — I have not the means of reference to the 

 passage quoted by M. Humboldt in support of the height 

 given by Captain Gerard ; but in the " Account of Koonawur," 

 which may be presumed to shew Captain Gerard's latest 

 views on these matters, he says : — " The limit of perpetual 



* I say 16,000 feet, as up to that height I am certain ; but 18,000 is more 

 probably the trutli. 



