73 VIEWS OF NATURE. 



considered as offering a fair criterion were iree from snow up 

 to 15,000, or even 16,000 feet. 



" Towards the end of August I crossed the Barjikang Pass, 

 between Ralam and Juhar, the elevation of which is about 

 15,300 feet. There was here no vestige of snow on the 

 ascent to the pass from the south-east, and only a very small 

 patch remained on the north-western face. The view of the 

 continuation of the ridge in a southerly direction was cut off 

 by a prominent point, but no snow lay on that side within 

 500 feet of the pass, while to the north I estimated that there 

 was no snow in considerable quantity within 1500 feet or 

 more, that is, nearly up to 17,000 feet. The vegetation on 

 the very summit of the pass was far from scanty, though it 

 had already begun to break up into tufts, and had lost that 

 character of continuity which it had maintained to within a 

 height of 500 or 600" feet. Species of Potentilla, Sedum, 

 Saxifraga, Corydalis, Aconitum, Delphinium, Thalictrum, 

 Ranunculus Saussurea, Gentiana, Pedicularis, Primula, Rheum, 

 and Polygonum, all evidently flourishing in a congenial cli- 

 mate, showed that the limits of vegetation and region of 

 perpetual snow were still far distant. 



" In addition to these facts, it may not be out of place to 

 mention that there are two mountains visible from Almorah, 

 Rigoli-gudri, in Garhwal between the Kailganga and Nan- 

 dakni, and Chipula, in Kumaon, between the Gori and Dauli 

 (of Darma), both upwards of 13,000 feet in elevation, from 

 the summits of which the snow disappears long before the end 

 of the summer months, and which do not usually again become 

 covered for the winter till late in December." 



These remarks are followed by an exposition of the errors 

 into which Webb, Colebrooke, Hodgson, A. Gerard, and 

 Jacquemont, have fallen. The heights assigned by these tra- 

 vellers " must all be rejected; nor can it be considered at all 

 surprising that any amount of mistake, as to the height of the 

 snow-line, should be made, so long as travellers cannot dis- 

 tinguish snow from glacier ice, or look for the boundary of 

 perpetual snow at the beginning of the spring." 



With regard to the northern limit of the belt of perpetual 

 snow, Lieutenant Strachey's observations were made in Sep- 

 tember, 1848, on his way from Milam into Hundes, vid Unta 

 dhura, Kyungar-ghat, and Balch-dhura, at the beginning o/ 



