1849.] Remarks on the Snow line in the Himalaya. 961 



cheeks of the Borendo pass to be upwards of 16,000 feet, yet the truth 

 of that measurement has been since called in question. It may there- 

 fore eventually be found that the elevation of that pass is below the 

 snow line, which would account for the disappearance of the snow from 

 the southern aspect. I am quite willing then to give Lieut. Strachey the 

 benefit of the doubt ; while at the same time should I be driven from 

 my position in Bissehir, I shall still take my stand with Dr. Lord, on 

 the Hindu Cush, and maintain, (which is in fact the only point for 

 which I have really contended) that the doctrine on which Humboldt 

 relied as applicable to the whole extent of the Himalaya, — cannot be 

 so accepted. — Feeling satisfied that he had discomfited all former ob- 

 servers in India, and thus converted his local into general facts, Lieut. 

 Strachey next proceeds to run a tilt with Humboldt himself, who had 

 accounted for the greater elevation of the snow line on the north of 

 Kumaon, by supposing that the radiation of heat from the plains of 

 Tibet contributed mainly to produce that effect. With this very sim- 

 ple and natural inference, our author is dissatisfied, and he " therefore 

 attempts to supplant it with a theory of his own. He says, that as 

 radiation from the plains of Tibet does not produce the greater eleva- 

 tion of the northern snow line, that effect must be occasioned by 

 the diminished quantity of snow that falls on the northern, as com- 

 pared to the southern part of the chain." Now this, if it be intended 

 to apply likewise to the district of Bissehir, becomes a perfect riddle, 

 for if less snow falls on the north than on the south, how is it that 

 there is always snow on the northern long after it has disappeared from 

 the southern aspects of the higher ranges of the western tracts ? Are 

 we to believe that the greater the quantity, the sooner it melts ? 



Even if restricted to the neighbourhood of Kumaon, the theory 

 would be totally unsatisfactory, for the small quantity of snow on the 

 north, if not acted on by radiation of heat from the plains of Tibet, nor 

 melted by the rains of the monsoon, would last at the very least as 

 long as double the quantity on the southern slope, where it is exposed 

 both to the direct rays of the sun and to the destructive influence of 

 the heavy periodical rains ; and this appears to be very satisfactorily 

 proved by Lieut. Strachey' s own remarks on the black range, which 

 rising immediately from the plains of Tibet, retains snow on its northern 

 aspect when there is none whatever on the south. — But when to the 



