TIBET. 
301 
heavy and continued rains fill the rivers to their brim, which run off 
from hence with rapidity, to assist in inundating Bengal. From Octo¬ 
ber to March, a clear and uniform sky succeeds, seldom obscured either 
by fogs or clouds. For three months of this season, a degree of cold 
is felt, far greater perhaps than is known to prevail in Europe. Its 
extreme severity is more particularly confined to the southern boun¬ 
dary of Tibet, near that elevated range of mountains which divides it 
from Assam, Bootan, and Nipal. 
The summits of these are covered all the year with snow, and their 
vicinity is remarkable, at all seasons, for the dryness of the winds. 
The range is confined between the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh 
degrees of northern latitude. During the winter, a practice is adopted 
in the neighbourhood of these mountains, similar to that in use in the 
coldest parts of North America, but in some respects more complete. 
I mean, that of preparing meat and fish for carriage, by the action of 
extreme cold ; a mode more particularly adopted by the Indians, 
who convey to their markets, at many hundred miles distance, their 
poultry, game, and fish, in a frozen state. But in Tibet, the practice 
fs confined, as far as came to my knowledge, to the preservation of 
mutton alone, and the process is extremely simple. They kill, clean, 
and strip the animal of his skin; he is then placed upon his legs, in a 
commodious place, and left exposed to a free access of frosty air, until 
all the juices in his body are completely dried up, and the whole 
becomes one uniformly stiffened substance. It is then in a fit state for 
carriage, to any part of Tibet, and for keeping to any season of the 
year. No salt is used in the preparation, I had supplies of this 
