252 OBSERVATIONS ON THE 



on the Southern or Indian slope of the Himdla/t/a, where, in a distance 

 of only a few miles, and frequently within a few hours' journey on the 

 corresponding aspects of the same ridge, we find cultivation checked, 

 and altogether extinct on the verge of ten thousand feet, owing to the 

 insufficiency of the summer heat at this limit, notwithstanding that the 

 winter season here, in respect to mere cold, is far less severe, and the 

 mean value of the climate much superior to that of the I)itra Himdlai/an 

 regions where grain is exuberantly cultivated. The climate of SpUi, not- 

 withstanding the great elevation of the soil, unites the extremes of sultry 

 heat and excessive cold ; while the sun's rays are always intolerable, and 

 in winter, strike with an ardor proportionate to the keen rigidity of the 

 ambient air. At this period, when the country is sheeted with snow, 

 exposure scorches the face and inflames the eyes even to the loss of sight, 

 the glittering expanse is here made more brilliant by the reflection of 

 skies of the deepest azure, even as black as ebony. On the first day of 

 November, after a fall of snow, and in a temperature of 25°, I was fatigued 

 by the sun's rays striking through a thick coat, and while feet and 

 legs were undergoing a constant transition of thawing and freezing, to 

 me at least the solar heat felt the most distressing, till the road deflecting 

 round a bluff angle on the margin of the river brought us into the shade, 

 where a bitter cold struck us to the bones, congealing the moisture of 

 respiration, and the clothes on our backs and our legs, which in the ford 

 of a torrent, came out at each step stiff with ice. From this time the 

 mercury daily pointed near the zero of the scale, once two degrees below 

 it, and probably did not rise, and must have fallen many degrees in the 

 subsequent four months. What the cold arrives at, when the sun reaches 

 his southernmost declination, is a conjecture that may be safely hazarded 

 at — 20° or — 25° for the inhabited spots in the valley, and at the villages on 

 either side of the limit of nearly fifteen thousand feet, it can be little 

 above the freezing point of mercury. 



