NOTES TO INTRODUCTION. 



J (page 4.)— This expression is borrowed from a fine de- 

 scription of a forest in Bernardin de St.-Pierre*s Paul and 

 Virginia. 



8 (p. 5.) — These comparisons are only approximations. 

 The more accurate elements (heights above the sea-level) 

 are for the Schnee- or Riesen-koppe, in Silesia, 824 

 toises, according to Hallaschka ; for the Rioi, 923 t., as- 

 suming the surface of the Lake of Lucerne to be 223 t. 

 (Eschmann's Results of Trigonometrical Measurements in 

 Switzerland in 1840, p 230) ; for Mou.NT Athos, 1060 t. 

 (Capt. Gaultier) ; for Mount Pilatus, 1180 t. ; for Etna, 

 1700-4 t., or 10,874 English feet, after Capt. Smyth. Ac- 

 cording to Sir John Herschel's barometric measurements, 

 communicated by him to me in 1825, it is 10,876 Eng.ft. = 

 1700-7 t. ; and, according to Cacciatore, from angular meas- 

 urements, and, assuming the terrestrial refraction to be = 

 0-076, it is 10,898 Eng. ft., or 1,704 t. For the Schreck- 

 HORN, 2,093 t. ; the Jungfrau, 2,145 t. (Tralles) ; for 

 Mont Blanc, according to the results discussed by Roger, 

 2,467 t. (Bibl. Univ. May 1828, pp. 24— 53) ; whilst Carlini 

 determined it, from Mont Colombier, in 1821, at 2,460 t. ; 

 and Austrian engineers, operating fron>Trelod and the Gla- 

 cier d'Ambin, fixed it at 2,463 t. The actual height of the 

 Swiss snowy mountains varies, according to M. Eschmann, 

 about 3i t., owing to the variable thickness of the coating 

 of snow. For Chimborazo, my trigonometrical measure- 

 ments give 3,350 t. (Humboldt, Rec. cTObs. astr. vol. i. p. 

 LIU.) ; for Dhawalaqiri, 4,390 t. All these mountain- 

 heights are given in toises, of six Paris feet each. As Blake 

 and Webb's determinations diflfer by 70 t., I must here re- 

 mark that the measurements of Dhawalagiri (or White 

 Mountains, from the Sanscrit dhwala, white, and giri, 

 mountain), cannot pretend to equal accuracy with those of 

 Jawahir (4,027 t.= 24,160 Par. ft. =25,749 Eng. ft.= 

 7,848 metres), founded on a complete trigonometrical oper- 

 ation {vide Herbert and Hodgson, in Asiat. Res. vol. xiv. p. 

 189 ; and Supp. to Encycl. Brit. vol. iv. p. 643). I have 

 shown in another place (Ann. des Sciences not. Mars 1825), 

 that the height of Dhawalagiri (4,391 t. = 26,345 Par ft. = 

 28,077 Eng. ft.) simultaneously depends on several imper- 

 fectly settled elements of astronomical positions and azi- 

 muths (Humboldt, Asie cent. vol. iii. p. 282). Stilj more 

 unfounded is the surmise that some snowy peaks of the Tar- 

 tarian chain, in the north of Tibet, near the Kuenlun chain, 

 rise to the elevation of 30,000 Eng. ft. (4,691 t., nearly 

 twice that of Mont Blanc), or at least to 29,000 Eng. ft. or 

 4,535 t. {vide Capt. Alexander Gerard and John Gerard's 

 Journey to Boorendo Pass in 1840, vol. i. pp. 143 <fe 311). 

 Chimborazo is styled " only one of the highest points of the 

 Andes," since the learned and able traveller, Mr. Pentland, 

 in 1827, during his memorable expedition to Upper Peru, or 

 Bolivia, measured two mountains east of Lake Titicaca; 

 namely, Sorata (3,948 t. = 23,688 Par. ft.) and Illimani 

 (3,753 1. = 22,518 Par. ft.), which far exceed Chimborazo 

 (3,350 t. =23.100 Par. ft.) in height, and nearly approxi- 

 mate to Jawahir f 4,0-27 t.), the highest of the hitherto ac- 

 curately measured Himalayan mountains. Mont Blanc 

 '.2,467 t. = 14,802 Par. fi.) is, therefore, 883 t. lower than 

 Chimborazo, and Chimborazo 598 t. lower than Sorata, 

 which is 79 t. lower than Jawahir, but probably 443 1. low- 

 er than Dhawalagiri. The measurements in this note may 

 be taken as more accurate from being given in various 

 scales, since false reductions of those scales have led to er- 

 roneous numerical statements in Modern maps and profiles. 

 Pentlatid's more recent measurements of Illimani, in 1838, 

 gives 7,275 met. = 3,732 1. for its height, diflfering only 21 1. 

 from the measurements of 1827. 



3 (p. 5.) — The absence of Palms and arborescent ferns iu 

 the temperate zones of the Himalaya is shown in Don's 

 Flora Nepaliensis (1825), as also in the lithographed and re- 

 markable catalogue of Willich's FZora Indica, — a catalogue 

 ■which contains the enormous number of 7,683 almost entire- 

 ly phanerogamous Himalayan species, although not yetsuffi- 

 ciently examined and classified. We as yet know of only 

 one species of palm, Chamaerops Martiana, Wall. (Plant. 

 Asiat. vol. iii. p. 5, t. 211) in Nepaul (lat. 26^0—27^0), 

 5,000 feet above the sea, in the shady valley of Bunipa. 

 The splendid arborescent fern, Alsophila Brunoniana, Wall. 

 of which the British Museum has had a stem, 45 feet long, 

 since the year 1831, does not come from Nepaul, but from 

 the mountains of Silhet, north-east of Calcutta, lat. 24° 50'. 

 The Nepaul fern, Peranema cyatho'ides, Don, formerly 

 Sphaeropteris barbata, Wall. (op. cit vol, i. p. 42, t. 48), is 



nearly related to the Cyathea, of which I saw a species, 30 

 feet high, in the South American Missions of Caripe ; bu 

 it was still no tree, properly so called. 



< (p. 5.) — Ribes nubicola, R. glaciale, R. j^rossularia. 

 In spite of a decl-aration of the ancients on " Eastern Asia" 

 (Strabo, lib. xi. p. 510, Cas.), the vegetation of the Hima- 

 layas is characterized by 8 species of Pinus, 25 oaks, 4 birch- 

 es, 2 species of Aesculus (the 100 feet high wild chesnut- 

 tree of Cashmir is inhabited up to 33° N. lat. by a great 

 white ape with a black face — Charles von Hiigel, Kashmir, 

 1840, part ii. p. 249), 7 maples, 12 willows, 14 roses, 3 straw- 

 berry species, 7 Alpine roses (Rhododendra), one of which 

 is 20 feet high, and many other Northern forms. Amongst 

 the Conifene we find the Pinus Deodwara, or Deodara (prop- 

 erly rfewflKf^ru, god- timber,) nearly related to Pinus Cedrus. 

 Near the eternal snows the Gentiana venusta, G. Moorcrof- 

 tiana, Swertia purpurescens, S. speciosa, Paruassia armata, 

 P. nubicola, Pseonia Emodi, Tulipa stellata, display their 

 large blossoms. Even next to the peculiar Hindoo mount- 

 ainous species of European orders, we find eight genuine 

 European species, as Leontodon taraxacum. Prunella vul- 

 garis, Galium Aparine, Thlaspi arvense. The heath, al- 

 ready mentioned by Saunders, in Turner's Journey, and 

 which has even been confounded with Calluna vulgaris, is 

 an Andromeda — a fact of great importance for the geogra- 

 phy of Asiatic plants. If, in this note, I make use of the 

 unphilosophical expression, "European forms, or European 

 species, growing wild in Asia," it is a consequence of th« 

 ancient l)otanical language, which very arbitrarily subjects 

 the idea of the distribution, or rather of the coexistence of 

 organic forms, to the historical hypothesis of an immigra- 

 tion, even premising a movement from west to east, out of 

 prejudice to European cultivation. 



6 (p. 5.) — The snow-line of the southern declivity of the 

 Himalayan chain is 2,030 1. = 12,180 ft. above the sea-level, 

 whilst on the northern side, or rather on the peaks which 

 rise, in 30^° to 32° lat., above the Tartaro- Tibetan table- 

 land, it is 2,600 t. = 15,600 ft., the snow-line being at the 

 height of only 2,470 1. = 14,820 ft. under the equator in the 

 Quito Andes. I have deduced this result from comparing 

 together several observations of Webb, Gerard, Herbert, and 

 Moorcroft. Vide my two Memoires sur les montagnes de 

 rinde of 1816 and 1820 in the Ann. de Chimie et de Phy- 

 sique, torn. iii. p. 303 ; tom. xiv. pp. 6, 22, 50. The eternal 

 snow-line on the Tibelan declivity is a consequence of the 

 radiation of heat by the near table-land, of the serenity of 

 the sky, and of the scanty formation of snow in very dry 

 cold air (Humboldt, Asie cent. tom. iii. pp. 281—326). The 

 conclusion, in regard to this line on both sides of the Him- 

 alayas, which I proposed as the more probable one, had the 

 sanction of Colebrooke's great authority. "I find," as he 

 wrote to me in June 1824, " that the height of the eternal 

 snows, according to the materials which 1 possess, is 13,000 

 English feet (= 2.033 1.). On the southern declivity, under 

 the parallel of 31°, Webb's measures would give me 13,500 

 Eng. ft. (=2,111 t.), or 500 feet more than Captain Hodg- 

 son's observations. Gerard's measurements perfectly con- 

 firm your announcement, that the snow-line is higher on 

 the northern than on the southern side." Only in this year 

 (1840) have we at length received, through Mr. Lloyd, a 

 copy of the entire journal of both the brothers, Gerard (Nar- 

 rative of a Journey from Caunpoor to the Borrendo Pass, iu 

 the Himalaya, by Captain Alexander Gerard and John Ge- 

 rard, edited by George Lloyd, vol. i. pp. 291, 311, 320, 327, 

 and 341). A great deal on single localities is comprised in 

 the " Visit to the Ghatool, for the purpose of determining 

 the line of perpetual snow on the southern face of the Him- 

 alaya, in August 1822;" but, unfortunately, the travellers 

 always confound the height where accidental snow falls, 

 with the maximum height at which the snow-line rises over 

 the Tibetan plateau. Captain Gerard distinguishes the 

 peaks in the middle of the plateau, the eternal snow-line of 

 which he fixes at from 18,000 to 19,000 Eng. ft. (== 2,815 to 

 2,971 t.), and the northern declivities of the Himalayan 

 chain, which limit the passage of the Sutlej, and where the 

 plateau is deeply furrowed, with, of course, little radiation. 

 The village Tangno is placed only at 9,300 Eng. ft. 

 (= 1,454 t.), whilst the plateau about the sacred lake, Ma- 

 nasa, is said to be 17,000 Eng. ft. (= 2,65J3 t.) high. Capt. 

 Gerard finds at the break in the chain, that the snow >a 

 500 Eng. ft. (= 78 t.) lower on the, northern declivity than 

 on the southern towards India ; on which latter face the 

 snow-line is estimated by him at 15,000 Eng. ft. (= 8,346 1.). 



