INTKODUCTION. 11 



advantage, to which sufficient attention has not hitherto been 

 directed. This portion of the surface of the globe affords in 

 the smallest space the greatest possible variety of impressions 

 from the contemplation of nature. Among the colossal moun- 



the height of the line of perpetual snow on the southern and on the 

 northern slopes of the Himalaya, should be again investigated by tra- 

 vellers who are accustomed to judge of the general conformation of the 

 land. Hitherto simple calculations have too often been confounded with 

 actual measurements, and the elevations of isolated summits with that of 

 the surrounding plateau. (Compare Carl Zimmerman's excellent Hypso- 

 metrical Remarks in his Geographischen Analyse der Karte von Inner 

 Asien, 1841, s. 98.) Lord draws attention to the difference presented by 

 the two faces of the Himalaya and those of the Alpine chain of Hindoo- 

 Coosh, with respect to the limits of the snow-line. " Th latter chain," 

 he says, " has the table-land to the south, in consequence of which the 

 snow-line is higher on the southern side, contrary to what we find to be the 

 case with respect to the Himalaya, which is bounded on the south by shel- 

 tered plains, as Hindoo-Coosh is on the north." It must, however, be ad- 

 mitted that the hypsometrical data, on which these statements are based, re- 

 quire a critical revision with regard to several of their details ; but still they 

 suffice to establish the main fact, that the remarkable configuration of the 

 land in Central Asia affords man all that is essential to the maintenance of 

 life, as habitation, food, and fuel, at an elevation above the level of the sea, 

 which in almost all other parts of the globe is covered with perpetual ice. 

 We must except the very dry districts of Bolivia, where snow is so rarely 

 met with, and where Pentland (in 1838) fixed the snow-line at 15,667 

 feet, between 16 and 17f south latitude. The opinion that I had ad- 

 vanced regarding the difference in the snow-line on the two faces of the 

 Himalaya has been most fully confirmed by the barometrical observations 

 of Victor Jacquemont, who fell an early sacrifice to his noble and unwea- 

 ried ardour. (See his Correspondance pendant son voyage dans I'lnde, 

 1828 a 1832, liv. 23, pp. 290, 296, 299.) " Perpetual snow," says 

 Jacquemont, "descends lower on the southern than on the northern slopes 

 of the Himalaya, and the limit constantly rises as we advance to the north 

 of the chain bordering on India. On the Kioubrong, about 18,317 feet 

 in elevation, according to Captain Gerard, I was still considerably below 

 the limit of perpetual snow, which, I believe to be 19,690 feet in' this part 

 of Hindostan." (This estimate I consider much too high.) 



The same traveller says, " To whatever height we rise on the southern 

 declivity of the Himalaya, the climate retains the same character, and the 

 same division of the seasons as in the plains of India ; the summer solstice 

 being every year marked by the same prevalence of rain, which continues 

 to fall without intermission until the autumnal equinox. But a new, a 

 totally different climate begins at Kashmir, whose elevation I estimate to 

 be 5350 feet, nearly equal to that of the cities of Mexico and Popayan," 

 (Correspond, de Jacquemont, t. ii., pp. 58 et 74). The warm and humid 

 air of th& .sea, as Leopold von Buch well observes, is carried by the mon- 



