On the Perpetual Snow line. 57 



into the minds either of myself or of my supporters, to pronounce 

 Captain Webb's statements erroneous when applied to certain loca- 

 lities whence his facts were derived, but we thought it necessary to 

 show that his doctrine was not generally applicable, and therefore 

 that it stood in need of some modification. 



Mr. Batten has well asked, " how can the observations of one in- 

 dividual made in one part of the mountains, upset the observations 

 of another individual in another part?" But he has somewhat 

 strangely forgotten to apply the question to Capt. Webb's state- 

 ments, for how can facts observed by him in Kumaon and the adja- 

 cent tracts upset the observations of others made in different locali- 

 ties to the westward ? And if they cannot upset them, then have we 

 at once a clear and convincing proof that Capt. Webb's facts are 

 merely locally and not generally true ; his facts were the results of 

 observations made in one locality, mine in another, and Dr. Lord's in 

 a third ; each is locally true, and while in the two latter instances 

 the facts agree, they can no more disprove the facts observed by 

 Capt. Webb, than his case disprove them. 



I have already acknowledged the faultiness of my first letter, in so 

 far as regards my having omitted to state in sufficiently distinct 

 terms, that my remarks referred to the actual northern and southern 

 aspects of the true Himalaya, or central, or main range of snowy 

 peaks, and not to the aspects of secondary groups and minor ranges. 

 My last letter, published in the October Journal explained all this, 

 and the question now appears to be, " does the snow lie longer, 

 deeper, and lower down on the Trans- Himalayan or northern aspect, 

 than it does on the Cis- Himalayan or southern slope ? I answer 

 without hesitation, that as a general rule applied to the Himalaya in 

 the proper acceptation of the term, the hitherto received doctrine is 

 decidedly erroneous. Nor is the assertion devoid of proof, for if, 

 as Mr. Batten declares, the observations made in different parts 

 of the mountains by different individuals, cannot upset each other, 

 we must necessarily admit that Captain Webb has recorded the 

 truth as observed by him in Kumaon and its neighbourhood, and that 

 Dr. Lord has also recorded the truth as observed by him to the 

 westward. The phenomena in the two localities are therefore true, 

 although directly opposed to each other, and furnish at once a 



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