HIMALAYA MOUNTAINS. b 266 



under the want of correfponding obfervations of the thermometer and 

 barometer at the foot of the mountains, wc mud either feek infome 

 journal, which may have been preferved, a contemporary obfervation 

 at a ftation (a very diftant one) in Bengal, or elfe be content to take the 

 mean height of the barometer in Bengal, where it is very llationary and 

 feemingly unafTe&ed by changes of temperature. 



For here, as in moft countries near the tropicks, the barometer has 

 a very confined range, and does not vary with the fluctuations of" the 

 temperature, owing to contrary but equal variations of denlity and 

 elafticity of the air or other countervailing caufes notinveftigated. 

 The column of mercury ftands, within a few tenths of an inch of the 

 fame height at all lea ions of the year ;* and exhibits, but within 

 narrower limits, the phenomenon of diurnal tides, which alfo do not 

 correfpond with the rife and fall of the thermometer.-f- Towards the 

 end of February, the feafon when the mountains of Nepal were vifited 

 by General Kxrkpatrick, the barometer does not vary in Bengal fo 

 much as the tenth of an inch above and below 30 inches, while the ther- 

 mometer in the fhade ranges io°, (from 70 to 8o° on a medium,) and 

 much more in an open expofure, between morning and noon. In the 

 months of December and January, the feafon when the column of 

 mercury is at its maximum,]]: the mean elevation of the barometer is 

 3007, while that of the thermometer is 68°. At Cat'hwdrJti, during 

 the fame feafon of the year, the mean height of the barometer is 25.28, 

 while the thermometer is -52 ; feldom altering fo much as the tenth 

 of an inch, and never more than l^- tenths, in the compafs of one 



• AJititick Rrfcarct c*. vo!. z, p. 47 i v 

 + I iii J, v. 1. 4, p. 202. 



X Asiatick Rcfearchet, vol, 2, p. 479, 



