1840.] Journal of a trip through Kunawur, §c. 579 



I call attention to these facts, because it has hitherto gone abroad to 

 the public that the snow on the Himalaya lies longer, and lower down 

 on the southern face, than on the northern, and as both my experi- 

 ence in this matter, and Dr. Lord's remarks on the Hinducush are 

 directly at variance with this reputed fact, I have ventured to quote 

 the above named gentleman's words, and shall endeavour to remove 

 what I have found to be an erroneous impression. 



" At the time of our visit," says Dr. Lord, " the snow which on 

 the southern face extended in any quantity, to a distance of not more 

 than four or five miles, on the northern, reached eighteen or twenty, 

 and at a subsequent period, November 9th, when I made an attempt 

 to go into Turkistan by the pass of Sir Ulung, and met with no snow 

 until within ten miles of the summit, it actually on the northern face 

 extended sixty miles, or nearly four days' journey." This is a fact 

 which forcibly arrested my attention, as the reverse is well known to 

 be the case in the Himalayan chain, where snow lies lower down on 

 the southern face than on the northern, to an extent corresponding 

 with 4,000 feet of perpendicular descent. 



But the Himalaya and the Hinducush have the same aspect; the 

 same general direction ; lie nearly in the same latitude ; and in fact are 

 little other than integral parts of the same chain. The local circum- 

 stances however connected with each are precisely reversed. The 

 Himalaya has to the north the elevated steppes of Central Asia, and 

 to the south, the long low plains of Hindustan; Hinducush, on the 

 other hand, has to the south the elevated plains of Cabul and 

 Koh-i-damun, between five and six thousand feet above the level of 

 the sea, while to the north stretch away the depressed, sunken, and 

 swampy flats of Turkistan." 



Against this long received opinion, that the snow lies deepest on the 

 southern face, I shall merely oppose the few facts which fell under 

 my limited observation during my journey into Tartary, and leave 

 others of more experience to decide the point. 



First, then, it must be observed that in the month of June, when 

 I crossed the Roonung pass, the snow lay deepest and farthest down 

 on the northern exposure. 



On the southern face of the mountains it was first met with at 

 about 12,500 feet of elevation, " lying in large fields or patches, and 



4e 



