400 
TIBET. 
affords, perhaps, the most extraordinary contrast that takes place on 
the face of the earth. From this eminence are to be seen the moun¬ 
tains of Boutan, covered with trees, shrubs, and verdure to their tops, 
and on the south side of this mountain, to within a few feet of the 
ground on which we tread. On the north side, the eye takes in an 
extensive range of hills and plains, but not a tree, shrub, or scarce a 
tuft of grass is to be seen. Thus, in the course of less than a mile, we 
bad adieu to a most fertile soil, covered with perpetual verdure, and 
entered a country where the soil and climate seem inimical to the pro¬ 
duction of every vegetable. The change in the temperature of the air 
is equally obvious and rapid. The thermometer in the forenoon 34°, 
with frost and snow in the night time. Our present observations on 
the cause of this change confirmed us in our former opinion, and in¬ 
contestably prove, that we are to look for that difference of climate 
from the situation of the ground, as more or less above the general 
level of the earth. In attending to this cause of heat or cold, we must 
not allow ourselves to be deceived by a comparison with that, which 
is immediately in view. We ought to take in a greater range of 
country, and where the road is near the banks of a river, we cannot 
well err, in forming a judgment of the inclination of the ground. Pu- 
nukhas and Wandeporeg both to the northward of Tassesudon, are 
quite in a Bengal climate. The thermometer at the first of these places, 
in the months of July and January, was within two degrees of what it 
had been at Rungpore for the same periods. They seem in more ex¬ 
posed situations than Tassesudon^ and were we to draw a comparison 
s Punukka. 
r Wandipore. 
