58 Tabled of High Asia, [No. f, 
Mexico, have increased, between the years 1806 and 1823, from 195° 
Faht. to 206°.6 Faht.,* thus exceeding at present the temperature of 
the ‘ Aguas de Comangillas” by 1°.3 Faht. 
The hottest known spring of Europe, unconnected with present 
volcanoes, is that of Chaudes Aigues in Auvergne (temp. 176° 
Faht.).+ 
III. Puystcan Puenomena. 
1. Snow-fall. 
The lowest height at which snow has fallen in the Himdlaya 
during the winter, is about 2,500 ft., but such cases are extremely 
rare, having occurred in Kamdon and Garhval only twice Gn 1817 
and 1847), since the British took possession of the country.{ Snow 
has fallen in the memory of man only once in Nahaén§ (8,207 [t.), in 
the province of Simla. The snow, which falls once within several 
years in the Kangra valley, down to heights of 3,090 and 2,700 ft., 
disappears almost immediately. At Haribégh the snow melts away 
on the day it falls, or at least within thirty-six hours. During my 
travels in Kalu, I was informed by the natives, as well as by several 
gentlemen who knew this part of the country thoroughly, that the 
village of Mandi (2,480 ft.), is below the limit of snow-fall. 
At an elevation of 5,000 ft. scarcely one year passes by without 
snow-fall; but, even at this height, the snow disappears after a few 
days, and sometimes even hours. ‘It snows, but one does not see 
it,’ the natives of Kathmandu (4,354 it.) very significantly use to 
say, meaning, that the rare nightly snow-falls are melted away by the 
earliest rays of the sun. 6,090 ft. may be assigned as the limit in 
the Himalaya, where snow regularly falls in winter, with the proba- 
bility of remaining some time upon the ground. 
In Western Tibet and in the Karakorum, the general elevation of 
the country is so great, even in its lowest regions, that no part lies 
below the limit of hibernal snow-fall. But the quantity of snow 
actually falling is inconsiderable, and this circumstance it is, which 
forms one of the chief causes that the passes of the Karakorim, even 
* Humboldt’s “* Kosmos,” Vol. IV., p. 246. 
+ Newbold, in “ Philos. Transactions,” 1845, p. 127. 
+ Colonel R. Strachey, in this Journal, Vol, XVIIL, Part I., p 309. 
§ This Journal, Vol, III., p. 367. 
