THE SNOW-LINE. 381 



an almost equal northern latitude (from 30*^ 45' to 31*^), the 

 snow-line on the southern declivity of the Himalaya lies at an 

 elevation of 12,982 feet, which is about the same as the height 

 which we might have assigned to it from a comparison with 

 other mountain chains ; on the northern declivity, however, 

 under the influence of the high lands of Thibet (whose mean 

 elevation appears to be about 11,510 feet), the snow-line is 

 situated at a height of 16,G30 feet. This phenomenon, Avhich 

 has long been contested both, in Europe and in. India, and 

 whose causes I have attempted to develop in various works, 

 published since 1820,* possesses other grounds of interest than 



As the volcano of Aconcagua was not at that time in a state of eruption, 

 we must not ascribe the remarkable phenomenon of the absence of 

 snow to the internal heat of the mountain (to the escape of healed air 

 through fissures), as is sometimes the case with Cotopaxi. Gillies, in 

 the Journal of Natural Science, 1830, p. 316. 



* t>ee my Second Mernoire sur les Montagues de I'lnde, in the Annates 

 de Chimic et de Physique, t. xiv., p. 5-55; and Asie Centrale, t. id., p. 

 ^81-327. While the most learned and experienced travelers in India, 

 C(;lebr(ii)ke, Webb, and Hodgson, Victor Jacquemont, Forbes Royle, 

 Carl von Hiigel, and V^igne, who have all personally examined the 

 Himalaya range, are agreed regarding the greater elevation of the 

 snuw-liue on the Thibetian side, the accuracy of this statement is called 

 in question by John Gerard, by the geognosist MacClelland, the editor 

 of the Calcutta Journal, and by Captain Thomas Hutton, assistant sur- 

 veyor of the Agra Division. The appearance of my work on Central 

 Asia gave rise to a redisciission of this question. A recent uumbei' (vol. 

 iv,, January, 1844) of MacClelland and Griifith's Calcutta Journal of 

 Natural History contains, however, a very remarkable and decisive no- 

 tice of the determination of the snow-line in the Himalayas. Mr. Bat- 

 ten, of the Bengal service, writes as follows from Camp Semulka, on the 

 Cosillah Kiver, Kuma')n : "'In the .Tuly, 1843. No. 14 of your valuable 

 Journal of Natural History, which I have only Litcly had tl^e o[!p.irtiiiii- 

 ty of seeing, I read Captain Hutton's paper on the snow of the Hima- 

 layas, and as I ditfered almost entirely from the conclusions s(j confi- 

 dently drawn by that gentleman, T thought it right, fur the iniercst 

 of scientitic truth, to prepare some kind of answer ; as, however, on a 

 more attentive perusal, I find that you yourself appear implicitly to 

 adopt Captain Hutton's views, and actually use these words, ' We have 

 long been conscions of the error here so well pointed out by Captain 

 Hutton, in common with every one who has visited the Himalayas,^ I ieel 

 more inclined to address you, in the fiist instance, and to ask whether 

 you will publish a short reply which I meditate; and whether your 

 note to Captain Hutton's paper was written after your own full and 

 careful examination of the subject, or merely on a general kind of ac- 

 quiescence with the fact and opinions of your able contributor, who is 

 so well known and esteemed as a collector of scientific data ? Now I 

 am one who have visited the Himalaya on the w^estem side ; I have 

 cros.sed the Bi);endo or Booriu Pass into the Buspa Valley, in Lower 

 Kanawar, returning into the Revv'aien Mountains of Ghurwal by the 

 Koopiu Pass; I have visited the source of the Jumna at Jumnootree i 



