120 On the Glaciers of the Himalaya. 



The limit of perpetual snow liere being about 15,000 feet 

 above the sea, in the one case the glacier comes down 3700, 

 and in the other 3000 feet below it. At the Kuphinee gla- 

 cier, a mass of Rododendron campannlatum, a shrub six or 

 eight feet high, was growing within thirty yards of the ice. 

 There were no shrubs of any size at the Pindur glacier, but 

 grass and flowers were at both places flourishing considerably 

 above the level of the ice. 



Having now concluded the record of my own observations 

 on the two glaciers seen by myself, I will add two extracts 

 from tiie journals of travellers in these mountains, which 

 most clearly prove the existence of two other glaciers, both 

 of great size ; one at the source of the Bhagiruttee or Ganges, 

 the other at that of the Goree, which is one of the main 

 feeders of the Kalee or Gogra. The first exti^act is from a 

 journal by Captain Hodgson, of a visit to the source of the 

 Ganges, in the year 1847 {Asiatic Researches, No, xiv., 4to, 

 pp. 117-128.) Captain Hodgson thus describes the first ap- 

 pearance of the glacier, from which the river rises. 



" The Bhagiruttee or Ganges issues from under a very low 

 arch at the foot of the grand snow-bed." — " Over the debouche 

 the mass of snow is perfectly perpendicular, and from the 

 bed of the stream to the summit, we estimate the thickness 

 at little less than 300 feet of solid frozen snow, probably the 

 accumulation of ages ; it is in layers of some feet thick, each 

 seemingly the remains of a fall of a separate year. The 

 height of the arcii of snow is only sufficient to let the stream 

 flow under it." 



He ascends the glacier : " This vast collection of snow is 

 about Ih mile in width, filling up the whole space between 

 the feet of the peaks to the right and left ; we can see its 

 surface forward to the extent of four or five miles, or more." 

 — "General acclivity, 7°, but we pass small hollows in the 

 snow, caused by its irregular subsiding ; a very dangerous 

 place ; the snow stuck full of rubbish and rocks imbedded in 

 it. Many rents in the snow appear to have been recently 

 made, their sides shrinking and falling in." — " Ponds of water 

 form in the bottom of these." 



" It was remarked above, that the snow of the great bed 



