that my passport was ample, and that I should expect a guide, provisions, and snow-boots the next day; and that every impediment and every facility should be reported to the rajah. [74] A broad ring of this material, agate, or chalcedony, is a mark of rank here, as amongst the Man-choos, and throughout Central Asia. During my two days’ stay at Walloong, the weather was bitterly cold: as heretofore, the nights and mornings were cloudless, but by noon the whole sky became murky, the highest temperature (50°) occurring at 10 a.m. At this season the prospect from this elevation (10,385 feet), was dreary in the extreme; and the quantity of snow on the mountains, which was continually increasing, held out a dismal promise for my chance of exploring lofty uninhabited regions. All annual and deciduous vegetation had long past, and the lofty Himalayas are very poor in mosses and lichens, as compared with the European Alps, and arctic regions in general. The temperature fluctuated from 22° at sunrise, to 50° at 10 a.m.; the mean being 35°;[75] one night it fell to 64°. Throughout the day, a south wind blew strong and cold up the valley, and at sunset was replaced by a keen north blast, searching every corner, and piercing through tent and blankets. Though the sun’s rays were hot for an hour or two in the morning, its genial influence was never felt in the wind. The air was never very dry, the wet-bulb thermometer standing during the day 3·75° below the dry, thus giving a mean dew-point of 30·25°. A thermometer sunk two feet stood at 44°, fully 9° above the mean temperature of the air; one exposed to the clear sky, stood, during the day, several degrees below the air in shade, and, at night, from 9° to 14·75° lower. The black-bulb thermometer, in the sun, rose to 65·75° above the air, indicating upwards of 90° difference at nearly the warmest part of the day, between contiguous shaded and sunny exposures. The sky, when cloudless, was generally a cold blue or steel-grey colour, but at night the stars were large, and twinkled gloriously. The black-glass photometer indicated 10·521 inches[76] as the maximum intensity of sunlight; the temperature of the river close by fell to 32° during the night, and rose to 37° in the day. In my tent, the temperature fluctuated with the state of the fire, from 26° at night to 58° when the sun beat on it; but the only choice was between cold and suffocating smoke. [75] This gives 1° Fahr. for every 309 feet of elevation, using contemporaneous observations at Calcutta, and correcting for latitude, etc. [76] On three mornings the maxima occurred at between 9 and 10 a.m. They were, Nov. 24th, 10·509, Nov. 25th, 10·521. On the 25th, at Tuquoroma, I recorded 10·510. The maximum effect observed at Dorjiling (7,340 feet) was 10·328, and on the plains of India 10·350. The maximum I ever recorded was in Yangma valley (15,186 feet), 10·572 at 1 p.m.