1847.] Notes of an Excursion to the Pindree Glacier. 263 



The trade and similar periodical winds are of no mean benefit to the. 

 navigator ; the use of their mountain counterparts is unknown, unless 

 it be to scour the deep vallies of their malaria. One abuse of them was 

 too evident ; the locusts were everywhere taking advantage of them to 

 penetrate into the mountains, and were in considerable numbers, 

 living, dying, and dead, at the very head of the Pinduree glacier. 

 How strong must be the instinct of wandering and self-preservation in 

 these scourges, when, in search of sustenance (which they would scarce 

 mid in Tibet,) it thus leads them, as the moth in the case of light, to 

 their own destruction amongst the ice and snows of the Himalaya ! 

 But so Ions; as rational men are found to resort to Sierra Leone, &c. on 

 the same errand, and with the same fate, though from an opposite cause, 

 we have not much room to boast of our superior discretion. The natives 

 of Kumaoon consider that the flights of locusts, which have in late 

 years, done immense damage to their crops, are produced from the 

 sea. I know them to be produced in liajpootana ; on our return to 

 Almorah on the 2nd October, we found vast swarms of them settled on 

 the fields and fresh ones coming from the south and south-east ; for- 

 tunately the harvest was too advanced to admit of much injury. 



September 26th. — Walked to Khathee in 3-g- hours, with soft showers 

 at intervals ; and heavy rain from 4 to 6 p. m. ; at one of the bridges 

 we met the Putwaree Mulkoo, or Mulkih Singh, a regular short, thick- 

 set, mountain savage, not unlike one of his own bears. 



September 27th. — To the Tantee chalet (now deserted) on the Dha- 

 kree Benaik, which we walked in 3^ hours. From half-past 12 till 6 



was told that in May and June "it is hot below Dhapa (Daba,) that sealing wax 

 melts if carried on the person during the day," a significant hyperbole. Moor- 

 croft suffered severely from fever in the same district, probably from these rapid 

 extremes. 



During the rainy season of the Indian Himalaya, the prevalence of clouds and 

 moisture, by equalizing the temperature, must in a considerable degree, neutralize 

 these currents : but to solve the problem satisfactorily, careful and extended obser- 

 vations are requisite, with the comments of an experienced meteorologist ; several 

 necessary elements, evaporation, electricity, &c. probably playing no mean rdle ia 

 the phenomena. 



In the Arctic regions, Dr. Richardson found the radiation of heat, from the snow 

 in spring to exceed greatly that from the soil in summer : and in the Himalaya, 

 the " Dhooa Breeze" is most regular and powerful from April till June. 



2 N 2 



