JOURNAL 



OF TH1 



ASIATIC SOCIETY, 



APRIL, 1849. 



On the Snow-line in the Himalaya ; by Lieut, R. Strachey, Engi- 

 neers. Communicated by order of the Hon'ble the Lieut. - 

 Governor, North Western Provinces. 



The height at which perpetual snow is found at different parts of the 

 earth's surface, has become an object of enquiry, not only as a mere 

 physical fact, but as a phenomenon intimately connected with the dis- 

 tribution of heat on the globe. In M. Humboldt's efforts to throw the 

 light of his knowledge on this question, he has, when treating of the 

 Himalaya, been unfortunately led much astray by the very authorities 

 on whom he placed most reliance ; and his conclusions, though in part 

 correct, cannot lay claim to any pretension to exactness. That he was 

 indeed himself conscious of the deficiencies in the evidence before him, 

 is manifest from his ending his disquisitoin by a declaration, that it 

 was necessary, " de rectifier de nouveau et par des mesures bien precises 

 dont tout le detail hypsometrique soit publie, ce qui reste de douteux 

 sur la hauteur comparative des deux pentes de 1' Himalaya, sur 1' influ- 

 ence de reverberation du plateau tubetain, et sur celle que Ton suppose 

 au courant ascendant de l'air chaud des plaines de l'Inde. C'est 

 un travail a recommencer" {Asie Centrale, T. 3, p. 325). Men of 

 science will still long have to regret that this illustrious traveller was 

 prevented from visiting the east ; Englishmen alone need remember 

 that he was prevented by them. 



The result of M. Humboldt's investigations on the position of the 

 snow line in this part of the Himalaya is thus given by himself: — "The 



No. XXVIIL— New Series. 2 p 



