456 GREAT COLD ON THE THIBETAN TABLE-LANDS. 



taken on the spot in this interesting and valuable work, 

 the expedition having traversed a section of country 

 consisting of a tremendously elevated region, in its 

 march from Leh, the capital of the Hill State ofLadak, 

 to Yarkand, which latter place is situated in the great 

 Central Asian plains, to the northward of the Himalayas, 

 in Lat. 380 24' i" N., Long. 77 15' 55" E., at an 

 altitude 3,923 feet above sea-level. The reports of 

 this expedition give almost the only really reliable 

 account of this wonderful region which exists up to 

 the present. The whole of the party, as might be 

 expected, suffered severely from the cold, and from 

 the extreme rarefication of the air, while crossing these 

 great altitudes, and many of their baggage animals 

 perished from the same cause. Almost the whole of 

 this route lies in what we have designated as " The 

 Glacial Region," which we have already spoken of as 

 the last and highest of the climatic zones in the great 

 mountain regions. 



One of the curious facts connected with these great 

 altitudes, which we ought not to pass by without 

 remark, is the difficulty which is experienced in cook- 

 ing anything, on account of the reduced pressure of 

 the atmosphere. We need hardly remind our readers 

 that water boils, at sea-level, at a temperature of 2,1 2 *> 

 Fahr., and that its boiling point is reduced progres- 

 sively, according to the increase in the altitude. The 

 decrease in the boiling point is ascertained to be one 

 degree Fahrenheit in the first 521 feet over sea-level,, 

 where the boiling point is 211 F., but this proportion 

 slowly increases with increasing altitude, and that being 

 ;so, advantage has been taken of the circumstance to 

 determine the heights of mountains by the boiling points 



