&8 Mr. Bell’s Remarks on the Errors 
Having surmounted the pass of Nitee, Moorcroffe was seized 
with the same symptoms. “ I awoke at an early hour, and was. 
immediately seized with dithculty of breathing, and great oppres-. 
sion about the heart, which was removed for a few seconds by sigh- 
ing deeply. When on the point of falling asleep, the sense of suf-— 
focation came on, and the sighing became very frequent and dis- 
tressing. However, as the air became warmer, this affection some- 
what subsided.” ‘The Hindoos, in endeavouring to dissuade Mr. 
Fraser from crossing the lateral ridges from the source of the Jumna 
to Gangotree, told him that, during the chief part of two days march 
in crossing a high hill with much snow, the air was poisonous to. 
such a degree as to affect the travellers, particularly those carrying 
loads,—that they become senseless, and are perfectly incapable of 
motion. ‘They cannot account for this phenomenon, but believe 
that it proceeds from the powerful perfume of myriads of flowers 
in the small vallies and on the hill slopes, and that it was most felt 
in the months of May and June. They talked wildly of a serar, 
or mountain wind, pregnant with this mysterious poison. Whilst 
Fraser was crossing, in pursuance of his resolution, the pass of 
Bamsooroo, 15447 feet above the level of the sea, all his attendants 
complained of the Bis, or poisoned wind. “ I now suspected,” says 
he, “ that the supposed poison was nothing more than the effect of 
extreme atmospheric rarefaction, from our great elevation, which 
rendered it impossible fully to inflate the lungs.” 
Mr. Webb confirms the statements above adduced, not only from 
his own observations, but also from those of the mountaineers them- 
selves, who are as sensible of it as strangers, and further assures 
us, that neither horses nor yaks are exempt from its influence. The 
natives call it Bis-Kehuwa, or the poisoned atmosphere, and con- 
ceive it to be owing to the presence of certain flowers, and that it 
is induced by walking or motion of any kind. While at Nitee, one 
of his attendants was seized with these painful sensations whilst re- 
ascending the banks of the Nitee torrent in the morning, He lost 
suddenly the use of his limbs and of his recollection ; animation in- 
deed was not quite suspended, but it appeared to Webb a milder . 
kind of apoplexy. His extremities became cold ; and after vainly 
attempting his recovery by friction, and applying hot stones to his 
palms and feet for several hours, he ventured to give him an eme- 
tic. A large quantity of foam was thrown up, and in two or three 
days he recovered. Webb believes this secretion of foam to be a 
peculiar effect of inhaling noxious vapours. 
Similar sensations were felt by Captain Gerard in ascending the. 
ass of Brouang, in the Southern Himmaleh. Dr. Govan, on the 
_ other hand, who ascended the Shotul Pass, at an elevation of 15556 
feet, denies that he felt any other inconvenience or difficult respi- 
ration, than what arose from the exertion of ascending, and which 
ceased whenever the body remained at rest. The poisonous flower, 
said by the natives to produce, by its deleterious effluvia, giddiness, 
fainting, somnolency, and asthma, is a species of that well known 
