1849.] On the Snow-line in the Himalaya. 293 



vations. Dr. Gerard reached the summit of the Shatul pass, the eleva- 

 tion of which is 15,500 feet, on the 9th August 1822, and remained 

 there till the 1 5th of the same month. He found the southern slope 

 of the range generally free from snow, and he states that it is sometimes 

 left without any whatever. On the top of the pass itself there was no 

 snow ; but on the northern slope of the mountain it lay as far down as 

 about 14,000 feet. On his arrival rain was falling, and out of the four 

 days of his stay on the pass, it either rained or snowed for the greater 

 part of three. The fresh snow that fell during this time did not lie 

 below 16,000 feet, and some of the more precipitous rocks remained 

 clear even up to 17,000 feet.* 



The conclusion to which Dr. Gerard comes from these facts is, that 

 the snow-line on the southern face of the Bissehir range is at 15,000 

 feet above the sea. But I should myself be more inclined from his 

 account to consider that 15,500 feet was nearer the truth ; and in this 

 view I am confirmed by verbal accounts of the state of the passes on 

 this range, which I have obtained from persons of my acquaintance, 

 who have crossed them somewhat later in the year. The difference 

 however is after all trifling. 



Such is the direct evidence that can be offered on the height of the 

 snow line at the southern limit of the belt of perpetual snow, some 

 additional light may however be thrown on the subject generally, by 

 my shortly explaining the state in which I have found the higher parts 

 of the mountains, at the different seasons during which I have visited 

 them. 



In the beginning of May, on the mountains to the east of the Ram- 

 ganga river, near Namik, I found the ground on the summit of the 



* Tours in the Himalaya, T. I. pp. 289-347. M. Humboldt apparently inter- 

 prets Dr. Gerard a little too literally, when, with reference to Dr. G.'s statement, 

 that " HansBussun," a peak said to be 17,500 feet high, " had lost all its snow" and 

 looked " quite black and dreary," he asks, " Quelle pent £tre la cause d'un pheno- 

 mene local si extraordinaire ?" (Asie Centrale, T. 3. p. 318, note.) The extreme 

 summit of the peak of Nandadevi, which appears to be a perfect precipice for several 

 thousand feet, is often in much the same predicament of ' black and dreary,' and 

 many people are disappointed with its appearance for this reason, contrasting it 

 with the beautitul pyramidal peak of No. 19 of Panch-chuli, which is always entirely 

 covered with the purest snow. 



