1849.] On the Snow-line in the Himalaya. 307 



From my own experience I can also speak of the remarkable change 

 of climate that is met with in the month of August, in passing from the 

 south to the north of the line of great peaks, by the vallies of the Gori 

 and Ralam rivers. A straight line joining the peaks No. 14, (Nanda- 

 devi), and No. 18, (the northern of the Panch-chuli cluster,) cuts the 

 Gori a little below Tola and the Ralam river about five miles further to 

 the east near the village of Ralam. The road up the Gori being at 

 that season impracticable, I went up the Ralam river to Ralam and 

 thence crossed over to the Gori by the Barji-kang pass, which is on 

 the ridge that separates the two rivers and that terminates in the peak 

 No. 16 (Hansa-ung). From the limit of forest to the village of Ralam, 

 the elevation of which is about 12,000 feet, the vegetation, chiefly 

 herbaceous, was of the most luxuriant growth and boundless variety, 

 and the soil was saturated with moisture. On crossing the Barji-kang 

 pass and descending to the Gori, we were immediately struck with the 

 remarkable change in the character of the vegetation, which had already 

 lost all its rankness. But a mile or two above the village of Tola the 

 alteration was complete ; the flora had shrunk within the most scanty 

 limits, the bushes hardly ever deserving the name of shrub, the few herbs 

 that were there were stunted and parched, the soil dry, and the roads 

 quite dusty. At Melam the still closer approximation of the climate 

 to that of Tibet, is clearly shewn by the occurrence of several plants 

 undoubtedly Tibetan, that are not found farther to the South. Such 

 are Caragana versicolor, the ' Dama' of the Bhotias, which covers the 

 plains of Tibet ; a Clematis, dwarf Hippophae, Lonicera, and two or 

 three Potentillas ; and no doubt several others might be named. 



Now although it is to the winter and not to the summer rains,* that 

 the precipitation of snow on these mountains is to be ascribed, yet the 

 circumstances under which the vapour is condensed appeared to be the 

 same at both seasons. Southerly winds blow throughout the year over 

 the Himalaya, in the winter with peculiar violence ;f and whatever be 



* Although it does not appear to be so well known, the winter rains of North 

 Western India are as strictly periodical as those of the summer. 



f The Southerly winds that prevail at considerable heights in the Himalaya, and 

 in the countries to the north, are diurnal phenomena, evidently dependent on the 

 apparent motion of the sun ; and in their time of beginning of maximum and of 

 ending, greatly resemble the hot winds of the plains of India, which have a similar 

 origin. 



