Appendix F. CLIMATE OF SIKKIM. 401 



the south faces of the third and fourth ; those from the north side 

 of the Kouenlun, and of the chain north of the Yaru, flow into the 

 great valley of Lake Lhop, which may once have been continuous 

 with the Amoor river.* 



For this view of the physical geography of the western Himalaya 

 and central Asia, I am indebted to Dr. Thomson. It is more 

 consonant with nature, and with what we know of the geography 

 of the country and of the nature of mountain chains, than that of 

 the illustrious Humboldt, who divides central Asia by four parallel 

 chains, united by two meridional ones ; one at each extremity of 

 the mountain district. It follows in continuation and conclusion of 

 our view that the mountain mass of Pamir or Bolor, between the 

 sources of the Oxus and those of the Yarkand river, may be regarded 

 as a centre from which spring the three greatest mountain systems of 

 Asia. These are : — 1. A great chain, which runs in a north-easterly 

 direction as far as Behring's Straits, separating all the rivers of 

 Siberia from those which flow into the Pacific Ocean. 2. The 

 Hindoo Koosh, continued through Persia and Armenia into Taurus. 

 And, 3. The Muztagh or Karakorum, which probably extends due 

 east into China, south of the Hoang-ho, but which is broken up 

 north of Mansarowar into the chains which have been already 

 enumerated. 



F. 



ON THE CLIMATE OE SIKKIM. 



The meteorology of Sikkim, as of every part of the Himalayan 

 range, is a subject of growing interest and importance ; as it becomes 

 yearly more necessary for the Government to afford increased 

 facilities for a residence in the mountains to Europeans in search of 

 health, or of a salubrious climate for their families, or for themselves on 

 retirement from the exhausting service of the plains. I was therefore 

 surprised to find no further register of the weather at Dorjiling, than 



* The Chinese assert that Lake Lhop once drained into the Hoang-ho ; the 

 statement is curious, and capable of confirmation when central Asia shall have 

 been explored. 



VOL. II. D D 



