Oct. 1849. TEMPERATURE. BIRDS. 161 



A dozen cartridges, each in an iron case, were slung 

 round the waist, and they also wore the long knife, flint, 

 steel, and iron tobacco-pipe, pouch, and purse, suspended 

 to a leathern girdle. 



The night was fine, but intensely cold, and the vault of 

 heaven was very dark, and blazing with stars ; the air was 

 electrical, and flash lightning illumined the sky ; this was 

 the reflection of a storm that was not felt at Dorjiling, but 

 which raged on the plains of India, beyond the Terai, fully 

 120 miles, and perhaps 150, south of our position. No 

 thunder was heard. The thermometer fell to 5°, and that 

 in the reflector to 3° 5 ; at sunrise it rose to 10°, and soon 

 after 8 a.m. to 33°; till this hour the humidity was great, 

 and a thin mist hung over the frozen surface of the rocky 

 ground ; when this dispersed, the air became very dry, 

 and the black-bulb thermometer in the sun rose 60° 

 above the temperature in the shade. The light of the 

 sun, though sometimes intercepted by vapours aloft, was 

 very brilliant.* 



This being the migrating season, swallows flitted 

 through the air ; finches, larches, and sparrows were 

 hopping over the sterile soil, seeking food, though it was 

 difficult to say what. The geese f which had roosted 

 by the river, cackled ; the wild ducks quacked and 

 plumed themselves * ouzels and waders screamed or 



* My black glass photometer shut out the sun's disc at 10*509 inches, from the 

 mean of four sets of observations taken between 7 and 10 a.m. 



"t An enormous quantity of water-fowl breed in Tibet, including many Indian 

 species that migrate no further north. The natives collect their eggs for the 

 maz-kets at Jigatzi, Giantcki, and Lhassa, along the banks of the Yarn river, 

 Ramchoo, and Yarbru and Dochen lakes. Amongst other birds the Sara, or 

 great crane of India (see "Turner's Tibet," p. 212), repairs to these enormous 

 elevations to breed. The fact of birds characteristic of the tropics dwelling for 

 months in such climates is a very instructive one, and should be borne in mind 

 in our speculations upon the climate supposed to be indicated by the imbedded 

 bones of birds. 



VOL. II. m 



