VARIED CHARACTERISTICS OF CLIMATE. 53 



exception of a few cedars, khursoo oak, and stunted 

 pine, no trees are to be seen but the white birch, 

 dwarf rhododendron, a kind of willow, and three 

 varieties of juniper. Here we find a third class of 

 animals, viz., the kustooree, or musk-deer, the 

 markhor, or serpent-eater (a kind of wild goat), 

 the ibex, the black-eared fox, the cheer, or brown 

 pheasant, and the argus, or horned pheasant. 



At from twelve to thirteen thousand feet the 

 limit of the forest generally ceases (although in 

 some more sheltered places I have found it at 

 over sixteen thousand feet, or about the height of 

 the summit of Mont Blanc), and is succeeded by a 

 fourth zone of grassy pastures, which rise to the 

 snow line. Here in the summer the turf is 

 enamelled with myriads of lovely flowers and 

 aromatic herbs, which are nourished by the melt- 

 ing of the snows, and this is the habitat of the 

 burrul, or snow sheep, nyau (Ovis annum), or 

 gigantic snow sheep, the sna and sha, varieties of 

 wild sheep (Ovis montana), the bonchour, or wild 

 yak, the kyang, or wild horse, and the marmot. 



Above the snow line, the elevation of which 



