40 PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 



for 1847, S. 176.) The great height to which the snow line 

 on the northern side of the Himalaya is raised in summer, 

 by the influence of the heat returned by radiation from the 

 high plains of the interior of Asia, renders those mountains, 

 although situated in 29 to 30J degrees of latitude, as 

 accessible as the Peruvian Andes within the tropics. 

 Captain Gerard has attained on the Tarhigang an elevation 

 as great, and perhaps (as is maintained in the Critical 

 Researches on Philosophy and Geography) 117 English 

 feet greater than that reached by me on the Chimborazo. 

 Unfortunately, as I have shewn more at large in another 

 place, these mountain journies beyond the limits of per- 

 petual snow (however they may engage the curiosity of the 

 public) are of only very inconsiderable scientific use. 



(2) p. 4. The Condor, the giant of the Vulture tribe." 



In my Kecueil d'Observations de Zoologie et d' Anatomic 

 comparee, vol. i. pp. 26-45, I have given the natural 

 history of the Condor, which, before my journey to the 

 equatorial regions, had been much misrepresented. (The 

 name of the bird is properly Cuntur in the Inca language ; 

 in Chili, in the Araucan, Manque ; Sarcoramphus Condor 

 of Dumerik) I made and had engraved a drawing of the 

 head from the living bird, and of the size of nature. Next 

 to the Condor, the Lammergeier of Switzerland, and the 

 Palco destructor of Daudin, probably the Ealco Harpyia of 

 Linnaeus, are the largest flying birds. 



The region which may be regarded as the ordinary haunt 

 of the Condor begins at the height of Etna, and comprises 



