240 Notes on MoorcrofCs Travels in Ladakh, QNo. 148. 



impending cliffs fringed with dark forest and topped with mountains 

 of indestructible snow, appear on every side. — Ditto, p. 12. The snow 

 beds that occurred on the road to the Pass must have been the accu- 

 mulation of ages. — Ditto, p. 159. 



It is to be regretted that the Gerards did not employ the same 

 accuracy in general description, which they brought to bear with so 

 much success, in ascertaining positions and in measuring the heights 

 of mountains. Were snow everlasting or indestructible, or did it con- 

 tinually accumulate, the hills would always, and not usually, be 

 covered. They would also increase in height, which they do not. The 

 hills are indeed perpetually covered, but this is owing to the annual 

 fall, and not to the indestructibility of snow. 



Snow is blown from the tops of hills, or it falls in avalanches, and 

 melts, or it becomes a mass of half-ice and half-snow, gradually melt- 

 ing above and below, owing to the superior heat of the atmosphere and 

 of the earth on either side of it. On the slopes of hills, the water so 

 produced, sinks and re-appears in springs at lower levels ; in ravines, 

 where there is always an accumulation of frozen snow, of some, but 

 not of a perpetually increasing thickness, the superior warmth of 

 the rocks aided by springs, melts the frozen mass, and forms a stream 

 below it; while the atmosphere melts and forms a stream on the 

 upper surface of the congealed snow. 



In the steep, narrow, and irregular sided ravines of Upper Kuna- 

 war, I cannot say that I have seen any glaciers properly so called ; 

 but the masses of frozen snow at the bottoms of these ravines, are 

 glaciers in every respect save in motion ; the smallness of their bulk, 

 and the varying width of the ravines do not admit of gravity over- 

 coming friction, and the mass is unable to descend. In the higher 

 parts of the hills, there are no doubt glaciers on a small scale. 



Winter Travelling. — The people say, that the highest Passes might 

 be traversed even in the middle of winter, were it not for the severe 

 frost that prevails in these serene regions, which is made more keenly 

 sensible from the great scarcity of fire- wood. The road from Shealkar 

 (in Kunawar) to Ladakh is travelled throughout the year, and indeed 

 January and February are the usual months in which the Kunawa- 

 rees visit Leh, the capital. — Gerard /?. 96. The road to Ladakh is 

 never shut by snow. — Gerard, p. 111. 



