64 Tableau of High Asia. [No. 1, 



the world there exists a permanently inhabited place at a height ex- 

 ceeding 15,600 ft. Paul de Carmoy's " Pueblo de Ocoruro," in the 

 Sierra Nevada, 18,454 ft. high, will prove, on a closer examination, to 

 be a temporarily inhabited place, similar to the summer villages of 

 Tibet, of which I name Gartok (15,090 ft.), Norbu (15,946 ft.), and 

 Puga (15,264 ft.) 



In the Kunlun, even the foot of its southern (Tibetan) slopes is so 

 elevated, that no villages exist at all. By combining with our own 

 observations a variety of reports received, I obtain for its northern 

 slopes 9,400 ft. as the limit of permanently inhabited villages ; sum- 

 mer villages reach about 10,200 ft. 



In the Andes, large and important permanently inhabited places 

 have been built at great heights (Cerro de Pasco, 14,098 ft., Potosi 

 13,665 ft.) ; they are generally situated on plateaux. Santa Barbara, 

 a mine with solid houses, about three miles south of Huancavelica, is 

 situated at a height of 14,508 ft. 



For the Alps, I have already had occasion to mention their summer 

 villages. The highest permanently inhabited villages are in the 

 valley of Avers in G-raubiindten, where Juf lies at an elevation of 

 7,172 ft., and that of Cresta exceeds 6,700 ft. But the roads leading 

 across the passes have rendered it necessary to construct houses near 

 the top which are permanently inhabited; the highest of these at 

 present being the well known monastery of St. Bernard (8,114 ft.) 

 As long as the road over the Stelvio or Stilfser Joch was kept up, 

 Santa Maria (8,146 ft.; was also inhabited throughout the year. 



2. Pasture-grounds. 



In the Himalaya, pasture-grounds " Karik," for sheep and bovine 

 cattle, are for the most part in low elevations, and at no great dis- 

 tance from the villages. The Karik Biterguar, in Kamaon. must be 

 mentioned as an exception to this general rule, it being situated at 

 an elevation of 14,594 ft. Nowhere are there built on these pasture- 

 grounds chalets (Alpenhutten), which are as little used in the Hima- 

 laya as tents in the Alps. 



Dairies, which are dispersed all over the Alps, and which form the 

 source of a profitable income under an able management, are quite 

 unknown in the Himalaya, even in those parts, as Kashmir and Nepal, 



