NOTES. VU 



Himalaya. On the latter, the cultivation of grain only ascends to the height 

 of 1560 toises, (or 9912 English feet) ; and even there the corn has often 

 to be cut green, or even while still in the blade. The woody region, com- 

 prising tall oaks and deodars, only attains 1870 toises; and dwarf birches, 

 2030 toises. On the plateau, Captain Gerard saw pastures up to 2660 toises ; 

 grain succeeds up to 2200 toises, and even up to 2900 toises ; birch trees, 

 with tall stems, reach 2200 toises ; and low bushes, 2660 toises, L e, 200 

 toises higher than the limit of perpetual snow in the province of Quito under 

 the Equator. It is exceedingly desirable that both the mean elevation of the 

 table land of Thibet, which, between the Himalaya and the Kuen-lun, I 

 assume at only about 1800 toises, and the relative height of the snow line ou 

 the northern and southern faces of the Himalaya, should be investigated anew 

 by travellers accustomed to general views. Hitherto, estimations have often 

 been confounded with actual measurements, and the elevations of summits 

 rising out of the table land with that of the surrounding plateau, (compare 

 Carl Zimmermann's Hypsometric Remarks, in his Geographischen Analyse 

 der Karte von Inner-Asien, 1841, S. 98). Lord calls attention to a contrast 

 between the relative heights of the line of perpetual snow on the two sides of 

 the Himalaya and on those of the Hindu Coosh. " The latter chain," he 

 says, " has the table laud to the south, and, therefore, the snow line is higher 

 on its southern face, which is the contrary case to that of the Himalaya, which 

 has low plains to the south as the Hindu Coosh has to the north." However 

 much the hypsometric data here treated of may require critical correction when 

 taken separately, yet the fact is sufficiently established that the remarkable 

 form of a portion of the earth's surface, in the interior of Asia, renders it 

 possible for men to dwell and to find food and firing at an elevation which, 

 in almost all other parts of the two continents, is covered with perpetual 

 snow. I except the exceedingly dry mountains of Bolivia, which are so 

 deficient Mn snow, and where, in 1838, Pentland found the mean height of the 

 snow limit 2450 toises, in 16 to 17f S. lat. What appeared to me to be 

 the probable difference of the height of the snow line on the northern and 

 southern faces of the Himalaya has been confirmed by the barometric measure- 

 ments of Victor Jacquemont, who fell an early sacrifice to his noble and 

 unwearied activity (vide his Correspondance pendant son Voyage dans 

 1'Inde, 1828 a 1832, Livr. 23, pp. 290, 296, 299). He says, "Les neiges 

 perpetuelles descendent plus has sur la peute meridionale de I'Himalaya que 

 sur les pentes septentrionales, et leur limite s'eleve constamment a mesure que 

 Ton s'eloigne vera le nord de la chaine qui borde 1'Inde. Sur le col da 



