80 VIEWS OF NATURE. 



" We returned to Milam via Chirchun. The whole of the 

 ascent to the Lakhur pass was perfectly free from snow to the 

 very top, i.e. 18,300 feet, and many of the neighbouring moun- 

 tains were bare still higher. The next ridge on this route is 

 Jainti-dhara, which is passed at an elevation of 18,500 feet, 

 but still without crossing the least portion of snow. The 

 line of perpetual snow is however evidently near ; for though 

 the Jainti ridge was quite free, and some of the peaks near us 

 were clear probably to upwards of 19,000 feet, yet in more 

 sheltered situations unbroken snow could be seen considerably 

 below us; and on the whole I think that 18,500 feet must be 

 near the average height of the snow-line at this place." 



A brief recapitulation of the principal results of Lieutenant 

 Strachey's inquiries shows us that "the snow-line or the 

 southern edge of the belt of perpetual snow in this portion 

 of the Himalaya is at an elevation of 15,000 feet, while OIL 

 the northern edge it reaches 18,500 feet; and that on the 

 mountains to the north of the Sutlej, or still further, it 

 recedes even beyond 19,000 feet. The greater elevation 

 which the snow-line attains on the northern edge of the belt 

 of perpetual snow is a phenomenon not confined to the 

 Thibetan declivity alone, but extending far into the interior of 

 the chain ; and it appears to be caused by the quantity of snow 

 that falls on the the northern portion of the mountains being 

 much less than that which falls farther to the south along the 

 line where the peaks, covered with perpetual snow, first rise 

 above the less elevated ranges of the Himalaya." 



The letters of Dr. Joseph Hooker published during the 

 present year (1849) in the Athenceum (pp. 431 and 1039) may 

 also be consulted with advantage.] 



(11) p. 5"^ tawny tribe of Herdsmen." 



The Hiongnu (Hioung-nou), whom Deguignes and with 

 him many other historians long believed to be identical with 

 the Huns, inhabited the vast Tartarian tract of land \vhich is 

 bordered on the east by Uo4eang-ho, the present territory of 

 the Mant-schn, on the south by the Chinese wall, on the west 

 by the U-siun, and on the north by the land of the Eleuthes 

 But the Hiongnu belong to the Turkish, and the Huns to the 

 Finnish or Uralian race. The northern Huns, a rude people 

 of herdsmen, unacquainted with agriculture, were of a blackish 



