346 Lieutenant R. JStracliey on the 



The testimony of Captain J. Cunningham, who passed a 

 winter in the most northern part of Kunawar, as to the small 

 quantity of snow that falls, is particularly valuable. He says, 

 " In this country a southerly wind and the sun together, keep 

 slopes with a southern exposure and 12,000 and 13,000 feet 

 high, quite clear of snow, (except when it is actually snow- 

 ing.) And this too, towards the end of Januai'y and begin- 

 ning of February, or I may say at all times." Also, "Here lam 

 (April 6th 1842,) about 9000 or 9500 feet high, wind generally 

 southerly, no snow whatever on southern slopes, within 15,000 

 or 16,000 feet, apricot trees budding ; but on northern slopes, 

 and in hollows, abundance ofsnow,''* (M'Clelland's Calcutta 

 Journal of Natural His tort/. No. xiv., pp. 281, 282.) 



From my own experience, I can also speak of the remark- 

 able change of climate that is met with in the month of 

 August, in passing from the south to the north of the line of 

 great peaks, by the valleys of the Gori and Ralam rivers. 

 A straight line joining the peaks No. 14 (Nandiidevi), and 

 No. 18 (the northern of the Panch-Chuli Cluster), cuts the 

 Gori a little below Tola and the Ralam River, about 5 miles 

 further to the east, near the village of RAlam. The road up 

 the Gori being at that season impracticable, I went up the 

 Rdlam river to Ralam, and thence crossed over the Gori by 

 the Bargi-Kiing pass, which is on the ridge that separates 

 the two rivers, and that terminates in the peak No. 16 

 (Hans4-Ung.) From the limit of forest to the village of 

 Rtllam, the elevation of which is about 12,000 feet, the vege- 

 tation, chiefly herbaceous, was of the most luxuriant growth 

 and boundless variety, and the soil was saturated with mois- 

 ture. On crossing the Bargi-Kang pass, and descending to 

 the Gori, we were immediately struck with the remarkable 

 change in the character of the vegetation, which had already 

 lost all its rankness. But a mile or two above the village of 



* These paragraphs are taken from extracts of letters of Captain Cunning- 

 ham, given by Captain Hutton, in support of his arguments, as to snow lying 

 lower on north than on south exposures, which accounts for the last sentence. 

 But whatever the quantity of snow may have been on the north slopes, compare 

 the heights here given as being clear of snow, early in April, viz., 15,000 feet, 

 with what I have above shewn to be the limit to the south of the great peaks, 

 as late as the middle of May, viz., 12,500 feet. 



