282 Dr Govan's Observations on the Natural History and 



summit is composed of vast tabular masses of compact 

 Granite, very susceptible in many places of decomposition ; 

 but not having the granitic materials at all in the same highly 

 crystallized and durable union as the rock of the Sutluj bed. 



The vegetable inhabitants are here, in many respects, the 

 same with those of the main range of snowy cliffs, to which it 

 is united by a continuous ridge nearly 8000 feet in elevation 

 at the source of the Girri. On the very summits of the 

 Choor first appear the Juniper, Alpine Rhododendron, and the 

 lofty Aconite, the well known poisonous effects of which, when 

 taken internally, seem to have given rise to a belief among the 

 natives, that it poisons the air in its vicinity ; an opinion for 

 which I never could discover any foundation, unless it may 

 be found in the lofty elevation of the belt, inhabited by this 

 showy plant, where occasionally (certainly not always or uni- 

 formly) the disagreeable effects usually ascribed to the rarity 

 of the air arc experienced by travellers. 



If the symptoms noticed by many eminent naturalists, as 

 arising from the rarity of the air, really are to be imputed to 

 that cause, whence comes it, that, like the descent of the mer- 

 cury, they are not in some degree proportioned to the eleva- 

 tion and rarefaction, and invariably occurring where a cer- 

 tain degree of the latter takes place ? 



In passing the night at elevations, on two occasions, up- 

 wards of 14,000 feet above the level of the sea, higher than 

 the summer limit of perpetual snow, and in crossing the 

 Himalayan by the Rol pass, (considerably above 15,000 

 feet,) they were neither experienced by myself, nor by any 

 individual of a party of forty native soldiers, and attendants ac- 

 companying me. Both in these same places, and at other in- 

 ferior elevations, they have been experienced on other occa- 

 sions, and were anticipated as probable upon these by the 

 natives. 



These facts would rather seem to indicate the phenomena 

 in question being dependant upon some less uniform atmo- 

 spherical condition, such as the electrical, which, about natural 

 conductors so elevated, must be in a state of constant fluctua- 

 tion. 



Whether tho Choor is of contemporaneous or subsequent 

 formation to the range of snowy cliffs, wc have no informa- 



