456 



Co rresp ondence. 



a few yards on the northern aspect, to the base of a rock which was 

 nearly perpendicular, we had the pleasure of seeing our baggage, 

 coolies, ducks, geese, and fowls in their baskets, descending most 

 rapidly by their own gravity, upon an unbroken bed of snow, 

 extending 250 to 300 yards, in one slope, forming an angle of about 

 45°; which was interrupted by a huge wall of rocks, which had 

 evidently been swept down from the neighbouring heights, in snow 

 slips. Such accumulations are still going on, forming this and other 

 similar ridges of stones lower down, wherever there is space more 

 level than the general slope. I send you a sketch done on the spot, 

 taken from the second wall or ridge of stones, looking nearly south. 

 I also send you two sketches taken at Setee, one looking S. E., the 

 other N. W. ; also one on north side of the Borendo Pass, looking 

 North, at 2,000 feet higher than Setee, which is on the southern side, 

 and southern aspect, which will elucidate my observations more 

 clearly. Though Captain Hutton has, I think, clearly proved the error 

 into which the scientific world in general has been led, yet I fear that 

 Captain Hutton, sometimes supports his facts by theories which 

 are not always correct. 



In my opinion the greater length of time during which the 

 southern aspects are exposed to the direct rays of the sun is suffi- 

 cient to account for the absence of snow. Captain H. has stated 

 as another cause, that which I fear no mountains will bear witness to ; 

 viz. page 280, of your Journal, No. 14. — Another argument also in 

 " favor of the snow on the northern side, appears to be furnished 

 *' in the occurrence of dense forests and vegetation along the south- 

 " ern slopes, while they are nearly altogether wanting on the 

 " northern face." 



Now I look at all my sketches taken from nature, (some hundreds,) 

 in Kumaon, Simla, and Kunawur, and in deed wherever I have tra- 

 velled in the northern hemisphere, and I find the northern aspects 

 much more wooded than the southern.* I have not travelled in 

 Norway or Russia ; but I have been informed that the same is the 

 case there. In Wales, Ireland, and Scotland plantations on southern 



* Our own observations perfectly coincide with those of Capt. Jack as to the 

 wooded character of northern, and the generally dry, arid, and naked condition of 

 southern declivities of the Himalaya, — Eds. 



