184/. j Glaciers of the Pindar and Kuphinee Hirers. 809 



all rising from the southern side of Tresool and Nunda Devee ; the 

 llamgunga (that which falls into the Surjoo, not the great river of the 

 same name) ; the Piltee, an affluent of the Goree ; and the Gonka 

 which rises near the Oonta-doora or Joohar pass into Tibet. 



I therefore conclude, that in the Himalaya, as in the Alps, almost 

 every valley that descends from the ranges covered with perpetual 

 snow, has at its head a true glacier ; and in spite of M. Elie de Beau- 

 mont's ingenious fact, that the seasons here " have no considerable 

 variations of temperature," and that " the thaw and frost do not sepa- 

 rately penetrate far enough to convert the snow into ice ;" I am of 

 opinion, that the very great intensity of all atmospheric influences, 

 including variations of temperature, should render these mountains one 

 of the most favorable fields for the investigation of glacial phenomena. 



APPENDIX. 



A short account of the principal Phenomena of Glaciers, abstracted 

 from chapters 2, 8 and 21 of Professor Forbes' Travels through the 

 Alps of Savoy, §'c. 



Perpetual Snow. — The atmosphere becoming colder as we ascend in 

 it, the tops of mountains that are more than a certain height above the 

 level of the sea, are always covered with snow ; — this height is greatest 

 at the equator, where it is about 16,000 feet, and gradually diminishes 

 towards the poles, where the natural covering of the earth is ice and 

 snow. 



Snow Line. — The snow line is an imaginary line passing through 

 those places, at which the snow which falls in one complete revolution 

 of the seasons, is just melted in that time, and no more. 



Glaciers. — The common form of a glacier is a mass of ice, that ex- 

 tends from the region of perpetual snow, into the lower valleys, which 

 are clothed with vegetation ; and that sometimes even reaches to the 

 borders of cultivation. The snow line on the glacier, is somewhat 

 lower than on neighboring parts of the mountains ; but below it, the 

 snow is melted and disappears from the surface of the ice, as regularly 

 and entirely, as from that of the country into which the glacier de- 

 scends. 



