Oct. 1849. ])TNGCHAM PROVINCE, ELEVATION OF. 169 



lofty regions can hardly be described, nor the clearness 

 and precision with which the most distant objects are pro- 

 jected against the sky. From having afterwards measured 

 peaks 200 and 210 miles distant from the Khasia moun- 

 tains, I feel sure that I underrated the estimates made at 

 Bhomtso, and I have no hesitation in saying, that the mean 

 elevation of the sparingly-snowed * watershed between the 

 Yaru and the Arun will be found to be greater than that 

 of the snowy Himalaya south of it, and to follow the chain 

 running from Donkia, north of the Arun, along the 

 Kiang-lah mountains, towards the Nepal frontier, at Tingri 

 Maidan. No part of that watershed perhaps rises so 

 high as 24,000 feet, but its lowest elevation is probably 

 nowhere under 18,000 feet. 



This broad belt of lofty country, north of the snowy 

 Himalaya, is the Dingcham province of Tibet, and runs 

 along the frontier of Sikkim, Bhotan, and Nepal. It gives 

 rise to all the Himalayan rivers, and its mean elevation is 

 probably 15,000 to 15,500 feet: its general appearance, 

 as seen from greater heights, is that of a much less moun- 

 tainous country than the snowy and wet Himalayan regions ; 

 this is because its mean elevation is so enormous, that 

 ranges of 20,000 to 22,000 feet appear low and insigni- 

 ficant upon it. The absence of forest and other obstruc- 

 tions to the view, the breadth and flatness of the valleys, 

 and the undulating character of the lower ranges that 



* Were the snow-level in Dingcham, as low as it is in Sikkim, the whole of 

 Tibet froni Donkia almost to the Yaru-Tsampu river would be everywhere inter- 

 sected by glaciers and other impassable barriers of snow and ice, for a breadth of 

 fifty miles, and the country would have no parallel for amount of snow beyond 

 the Polar circles. It is impossible to conjecture what would have been the 

 effects on the climate of northern India and central Asia under these conditions. 

 When, however, we reflect upon the evidences of glacial phenomena that abound 

 in all the Himalayan valleys at and above 9000 feet elevation, it is difficult to 

 avoid the conclusion that such a state of things once existed, and that at a 

 comparatively very recent period. 



