538 



Correspondence. 



the PERPETUAL snolo line is at a higher elevation on the northern slope 

 of " the Himalya," than on the southern slope. 



The facts mentioned by Capt. Hutton appear to me only to refer 

 to the northern sides of all mountains in these regions, and not 

 to affect in any way the reports of Capt. Webb and others, on 

 which Humboldt formed his theory. Indeed how can any facts 

 of one observer in one place falsify the facts of another observer in an- 

 other place ? I willingly allow that the north side of a hill retains 

 the snow longer and deeper than the south side, and this observa- 

 tion equally applies to heights in Bhote. But Humbolt's theory is 

 on the question of the perpetual snow line, and Capt. Button's refer- 

 ences to Simla and Mussooree and other mountain sites,* are out 

 of place in this question ; or else he fights against a shadow, or 

 an objection of his own creating. In no part of his paper does 

 he quote accurately the dictum which he wishes to oppose. Who 

 ever said the snow lies longer and deeper in the Southern slopes 

 of the several mountains ? What has been said, and what I now say 

 is, that at the same moment of time (say of any day in September,) 

 when in Thibet or Chinese Tartary, little or no snow is found at 

 17,000 or even 18,000 feet odd above the sea by one traveller, 

 another traveller in the Himalya on the south side of the high 

 peaks finds deep snow at 14,000 feet and even lower. The causes of 

 these phenomena it is easy to dissert upon, and I am far from 

 pinning my faith to even the illustrious Humboldt on this point. 

 But, my present object is to state, that one traveller to the Himalya, 

 at least in addition to Webb, should be excluded from the assertion 

 contained in your note, 



Note.~l readily confess that I may have been wrong in both the notes appended 

 to this correspondence ; the first of these notes was to the effect, that the line of 

 perpetual snow is actually higher on the Southern than it is on the Northern 

 face on the Himalaya, contrary to the actual naeasurements of Capt. Webb on 

 both sides of the mountain chain ; and the second, coinciding with the view enter- 

 tained by Capt. Hutton. With regard to the first, I must observe, that I never was 

 within forty miles of the high peaks, so that my impression of the supposed error 

 of the measurements of Capt. Webb was derived from a distant view of the snow 

 line, and its relative height with regard to certain peaks, the elevations of which 

 were known, and seemed to make the snow line at least 16,000 to 17,000 feet on the 

 South side, whilst I think it ought to be no more than about 13,000 feet in the 31° 

 N. latitude, according to the calculations of Humboldt.— Ed. 



