122 On the Glaciers of the Himalaya. 



cumulations of ice and gravel are to be seen in the openings 

 between the hills. Once on either side I had a view of the 

 old ice high upon the hills ; its light sea-green colour, with 

 strongly defined and fantastical lines of sliape (castles, stairs, 

 &c.), formed a very pleasing and grand , appearance." This 

 glacier is known to be six or seven miles long ; its lower ex- 

 tremity is at 11,600 feet above the sea. 



In the published journals of travellers in the Himalaya 

 that I have seen, I have not met with any other accounts of 

 glaciers sufficiently distinct to be worth quoting, though we 

 not unfrequently come across a snow-bed that seems suspi- 

 cious. I am, however, fully satisfied of the actual existence 

 of many other glaciers, both from the verbal accounts of Mr 

 Batten, who has been a resident in Kumaon for many years ; 

 of my brother, Mr H. Strachey, who visited several of the 

 passes into Thibet last year ; and of the Bhotians (the natives 

 of the valleys immediately below the snowy ranges) ; and 

 from having myself had distant views of several. 



From these sources I am able to affirm positively the ex- 

 istence of glaciers at the heads of the following rivers, viz. : 

 — the Vishnoogunga (near Budrinath) ; the Kylgunger, the 

 Koourgurh the Soondurdoonga, all rising from the northern 

 side of Tresool and Nunda Devee ; the Ramgunga (that which 

 falls into the Surgoo, not the great river of the same name) ; 

 the Piltee, an affluent of the Goree ; and the Gonka, which 

 rises near the Oonta-doora or Joohar, pass into Thibet. 



I therefore conclude, that in the Himalaya, as in the Alps, 

 almost every valley that descends from the ranges covered 

 with perpetual snow, has at its head a true glacier ; and' in 

 spite of Mr Elie de Beaumont's ingenious fact, that the 

 seasons here " have no considei*able vai'iations of tempera- 

 ture,'' and that " the thaw and frost do not separately pene- 

 trate far enough to convert the snow into ice,'' I am of opinion, 

 that the very great intensity of all atmospheric influences, in- 

 cluding variations of temperature, should render these moun- 

 tains one of the most favourable fields for the investigation 

 of glacial phenomena. — Journal of the Asiatic Society of Ben- 

 gal, New Series, No. viii., p. 794. 



