304 



LIFE AT GREAT ELEVATIONS. 



wilderness of gravel, stones, and rock, a diligent 

 search will probably some day reveal the existence of 

 such plants there; and this would to our mind to a 

 great extent explain how the game of this remarkable 

 table-land manage to maintain existence during the 

 long and terribly severe winters. We know already 

 for instance, that on account of the extreme dry ness 

 of the Thibetan climate as a rule very little snow falls 

 there, compared with what falls on the southern face 

 of the Himalayan chain. 



This therefore disposes of any difficulty as to animals 

 being able to reach such food, should it exist. These 

 plants themselves generally grow in their very best 

 condition upon wind-blown surfaces of bare rock, 

 throughout the northern polar region, probably up to 

 the very pole itself wherever there is land. Some details 

 will be found respecting them in our chapter on the 

 Arctic Zone, to which we beg to refer our readers. 



The peculiarities of life at great elevations, both for 

 man and beast, present numerous special features of 

 interest, some of which must necessarily be made the 

 subject of consideration, in any account however brief 

 of mountain shooting, as the finest sport is only to be 

 had in the barren grounds high above the habitations 

 of man, where the rarefi cation of the atmosphere imposes 

 conditions upon our bodily frames which must by no 

 means be overlooked; its pressure representing, as 

 we all know something like 14.7 Ibs upon the square 

 inch, at sea-level, diminishes with great rapidity at 

 increased altitudes; so much so that it is extremely 

 doubtful whether the attenuated air upon the tops of 

 our very highest mountains (such for instance as Mount 

 Everest, 29,000 feet) would suffice could we get 



