was the more provoking, as they were then at the southern base of the Kylas, which alone intervened between Captain Webb and that lake. His orders, he said, were positive on that head; and that pilgrims even were, in future, to be prohibited from crossing the mountains; and when Captain Webb reminded him that two English gentlemen, (Moorcroft and Hearsay,) had obtained permission from the Deba of Gherthope, (named Gurdon by this chief,) he replied, that the Deba had been removed from his government, and ordered to Lassa to answer for his imprudence. On endeavouring to obtain from this officer some information respecting Manasarowar, he said, that upwards of one hundred streams fell into that lake; and that it had but one outlet, (frequently dry,) which connected it with the Rowan Rhad; so that Moorcroft's pundit, and the Lataki traveller, after all, were right, and Manasarowar is the source of the Sutledge. Captain Webb seems to think that the difference of levels of those two lakes must be considerable, and that a subterraneous communication must exist between them; as one periodical channel could not possibly carry off all the waters which are poured from the surrounding mountains into the sacred lake.

In this district bordering on Bootan, Captain Webb experienced severe snowy weather till the beginning of June; and, in the latter end of September, he was shut up for seven days by a fall of snow, which buried the adjacent country to the depth of two feet and upwards. The extreme fatigue, which the occupation of surveying necessarily requires in such vicissitude of climate, could not fail to impair his health; but his spirits remain good. In his last letter to his mother, he says, "That I shall ever be a stout, hale man, is hardly to be expected; and I think my visage looks more ancient and weather-beaten every time I consult a lookingglass; luckily, however, this is a monitor with which I rarely hold an interview. As I do not see a white face twice a year, my beard remains unshorn, and my general appearance is as wild and uncouth as that of my Indian companions. My face covered with hair, my body wrapped in a jerkin of Tartar cloth, and a fur cap on my head, I think that even you might pass me as a native mountaineer; and certainly so in the roads of this province,

where the eye seldom wanders further from the advanced foot, than the iron spike of a pole placed on the ground, which its following brother purposes to occupy."

In the course of this interesting survey, Captain Webb has taken uncommon pains to ascertain, by all the means that good instruments and trigonometrical operations could afford, the height of no less than twenty-seven peaks of the snowy mountains, the highest of which is stated to be 25,669 feet, and the lowest, 15,733 feet, above the level of the sea; the former being more than 5,000 feet higher than the peak of Chimboraço, the most elevated of the Cordilleras of the Andes.

It is to be hoped that Captain Webb will be induced to publish an account of his proceedings and observations in the upper regions of Hindostan, which now form a part of the British territories, and of which so very little is known in Europe.

(See page 51 of our last Volume.)

ART. IV. On the Limit of Constant Congelation in the Himalaya Mountains.

FROM recent inquiries and observations, of which the result has been the subject of a communication to the Asiatic Society at Calcutta, it appears that the inferior limit of perpetual congelation in the Himalaya range of mountains does not descend so low, as was to be concluded from theory.

The elevation of several stations, deduced from barometrical observations taken in June 1817, has been already given in a preceding number of this Journal, (Vol. vi. p. 64-65.) It was there remarked (p. 56,) that the elevation of the spot, where the Gauri river emerges from the snow, had been found by measurement to be 11,543 feet above the level of Calcutta, (or little more than 11,650 feet above the sea,) in a parallel of latitude where the boundary of constant congelation might, according to theory, be expected at 11,400 feet. And a bridge of spars over the Cálápání river, or rather over the chasm in which it flows, two miles from its source, was found by geometrical measurement to be 12,670 feet above the sea; which would be quite conformable to theory, if the chasm were 1,200 feet deep.

Some inhabited places, (occupied, as is presumed, during the summer only,) were noticed, of which the elevation is from 11,050 to 11,489 feet above the level of Calcutta. These were concluded (ib. p. 57,) to be on the verge of the limit of congelation, as inferred from theory.

It was not supposed in these remarks, that the line of perpetual snow can be a well-defined, distinct, and precise one. The boundary of congelation must vary from year to year, with the mildness and severity of the season, and consequently must be taken for particular places, at a medium of a larger period. It must vary likewise according to the exposure of the spot. In a screened position or sheltered aspect, a deep chasm, or secluded cave, snow would remain at an elevation below that of more exposed situations.

Glaciers, as is well known, are perennial in certain situations, at altitudes much short of the prevailing line of permanent congelation in the same mountains. The glacier of the Rhone, immediately above the sources of that river, has been measured 1,842 French metres, or 6,044 English feet above the sea. The line of congelation in that parallel of latitude (40°,) has been stated from a table computed according to theory, at 7,402 feet.

A considerable latitude therefore is to be allowed for variance of particular observations, and for their disagreement with a theory expressed in empirical formulæ, grounded on no induction of ample facts.

Neither is it to be expected, that isothermal lines, which are far from corresponding to the parallels of latitude at a low elevation above the level of the sea, shall agree to precision with those parallels at Alpine, and more than Alpine, height.

These considerations are strengthened and confirmed by present information. Among the most elevated positions, of which the height was measured barometrically, as before mentioned, are the village and temple of Milem, 11,405 and 11,682 feet above Calcutta. That altitude, in the parallel of latitude assigned to the place, 30° 25', would be near the verge of perpetual snow, and

1

even within its limit, according to theory. Yet the observer, Captain Webb, at the time of visiting this place, found extensive fields of buckwheat and Tartaric barley, occupying the space between the village and temple.

A twelvemonth later, on the 21st of June last, the same surveyor proceeding southward from Jóshi-mať and from the Dauli river observed barometrically the altitude of a station in the ridge of mountains which he traversed south of that river. He found the height 11,680 feet above the level of Calcutta; yet his encampment, where the observation was made, was surrounded by flourishing woods of hoary oak, long-leaved pine, and arborescent rhododendron; and the surface was clothed with a rank vegetation of herbs.

On the following day, he reached the summit of a pass (Pilgointi churhai) where he again observed with the barometer, and concluded from it an elevation of 12,642 feet above the level of Calcutta; (and consequently more than 12,700 feet above the sea.) A thick mist here confined the prospect, but no snow was to be seen contiguous to the spot. The surface exhibited a black soil, unless where the bare rock appears; and was clad with creeping plants and flowering herbs in luxuriant abundance. The shoulder of a mountain, on the one hand, rising still higher, was yet without a vestige of snow; and appeared, as far as the view extended through the mist, enamelled with flowers. A declivity, on the other hand, descended towards a forest of birch, pine, and rhododendron. In hollows and recesses, accumulations of snow were observed at a less height. But the snow, as was surmised, would probably be dissolved by the damp warmth of the ensuing rainy season.

The goat-herds of the country are accustomed, as they informed Captain Webb, to lead their flocks to pasture during the subsequent months (July and August) upon a yet loftier ridge of mountain, estimated to be as much above the pass of Pilgointi, as this is above the preceding day's encampment; that is, nearly a thousand feet. This information goes to remove the actual boundary of congelation still farther: and deserves to be verified, as proposed to be done, by again visiting the place at the specified The road from the village and temple of Milem, before men tioned, towards Tartary, leads along the bank of a rapid mountain stream, and is evidently, therefore, a continued ascent. The snowy ridge is crossed by this route on the fifth day's journey from Milem, travelling with droves of laden cattle. It is passable in the month of July, at which season the carriers find pasture for their beasts of burden (sheep and goats) even at the fourth halt going from Milem, at a station which must consequently be taken to be considerably elevated above it.

Combining these corroborative circumstances, the limit of vegetation is carried by estimate to several hundred feet above the observed altitude of Pilgointi pass, and more than a thousand above that of the temple at Milem, or beyond thirteen thousand feet above the level of the sea, in the parallel of 30 degrees of latitude.

In a communication to the Asiatic Society from another surveyor, Captain Hodgson, who visited the remotest accessible fountains of the Ganges and Jamna rivers, it appears that the glacier and wall of snow, from beneath which the Ganges issues, was by him determined at 12,914 feet above the level of the sea.

The limit of constant congelation, then, may be reckoned in round numbers, either at 13,000 feet above the sea, in the parallel of 31°, as inferred from Captain Hodgson's measurement; or at 13,500 feet in that of 30°, as concluded by Captain Webb, from his observations. The former of these differs from theoretical conclusions, about 1,750 feet, the latter about 2,000 feet.

The recent barometric observations, which have been relied on, and which were taken in the month of June last, are as follows : Crossing the ridge south of the Dauli river, on 21st June, at noon, barometer 19.63; thermometer, attached and detached 56. Summit of Pilgointi pass, 22d June, 1 P. M. barometer 18.96; therm. 544°.

At the preceding station, the thermometer at sunrise, in the open air, stood at 48°.

The corresponding observation, assumed for the purpose of an immediate computation, was, bar. 29.58; therm. 84°, taken from a meteorological diary of the former year at Calcutta. It is subject to correction for an inconsiderable difference, between that