10 DIFFERENT GRADATIONS OF 



the Himalaya, the Dhavalagiri. But although the moun- 

 tains of India far surpass in their astonishing elevation (long 

 disputed, but now confirmed by authentic measurements) 

 the Cordilleras of South America, they cannot, from their 

 geographical position, offer that inexhaustible variety of 

 phenomena by which the latter are characterised. The im- 

 pression produced by the grandest scenes of nature does not 

 depend exclusively on height. The chain of the Himalaya 

 is situated far without the torrid zone. Scarcely is a single 

 palm tree ( 3 ) found so far north as the beautiful valleys 

 of Kumaoon and Nepaul. In 28 and 34 of latitude, 

 on the southern slope of the ancient Paropamisus, nature 

 no longer displays that abundance of tree ferns, or arbo- 

 rescent grasses, of Heliconias, and of Orchideous plants, 

 which, within the tropics, ascend towards the higher plateaux 

 of the mountains. On the slopes of the Himalaya, under 

 the shade of the Deodar and the large-leaved oak peculiar 

 to these Indian Alps, the rocks of granite and of mica schist 

 are clothed with forms closely resembling those which cha- 

 racterise Europe and Northern Asia ; the species indeed arB 

 not identical, but they are similar in their aspect and phy- 

 siognomy, comprising junipers, alpine birches, gentians, par* 

 nassias, and prickly species of Eibes ( 4 ). The chain of the 

 Himalaya is also wanting in those imposing volcanic pheno- 

 mena, which, in the Andes and in the Indian Archipelago, 

 often reveal to the inhabitants, in characters of terror, the 

 existence of forces residing in the interior of our planet. 

 Moreover, on the southern declivity of the Himalaya, where 

 the vapour-loaded atmosphere of Hindostan deposits its 

 moisture, the region of perpetual snow descends to a zone 

 of not more than 11000 or 12000 (11700 or 12800 Eng.) 



