The wonders of the world : $b a complete museum, descriptive and pictorial, of the wonderful phenomena and results of nature, science and artAbbott, John Loraine
Science
The wonders of the world : $b a complete museum, descriptive and pictorial, of the wonderful phenomena and results of nature, science and art
Abbott, John Loraine
Curiosities and wonders
“On the night of the sixteenth of July, we slept at Bheemkeudar, near
the source of the Coonoo and Bheem streams. There is no wood near this
place, even in the very bottom of the valley, and we had left even the
stunted birch at a considerable distance below; but there was a
profusion of flowers, ferns, thistles, &c., and luxuriant pasturage.
Captain Webb’s limit of wood is at least as high as twelve thousand to
twelve thousand, three hundred feet. I would, therefore, presume the
site of Bheemkeudar to be considerably above that level; say thirteen
thousand to thirteen thousand, three hundred feet, above the level of
Calcutta. From thence we ascended at first rather gradually, and then
very rapidly, till we left all luxuriant vegetation, and entered the
region of stripped and scattered and partially melting snow. From
calculating the distance passed, and adverting to the elevation we had
attained, I would presume that this was at least fifteen hundred feet
above Bheemkeudar, or from fourteen thousand, five hundred, to fifteen
thousand feet above Calcutta.
“We proceeded onward, ascending very rapidly, while vegetation decreased
gradually to a mere green moss, with here and there a few snow-flowers
starting through it; snow fast increasing, till at length we entered on
what I presume was the perennial and unmelting snow, entirely beyond the
line of vegetation, where the rock was bare even of lichens: and in this
we ascended, as I think, about eight hundred feet; for, though Bamsooroo
Ghat may not be so far above this line, we continued ascending, even
after crossing that point, and I would incline to estimate this utmost
extent of ascent at two thousand feet more, or nearly seventeen thousand
feet above the level of Calcutta.
“Whilst proposing to consider the point of sixteen thousand to sixteen
thousand, five hundred feet, as that of inferior congelation, I must
observe that there was no feeling of _frost_ in the air, and the snow
was moist, though hard, chiefly through the influence of a thick mist,
which, in fact, amounted to a very small drizzling rain, which fell
around: all which would seem to indicate, that the true line of
congelation had not there been attained; but we were surrounded by snow
which evidently never melted. To a great depth below it extended all
over the hills, very little broken, while on the valleys from whence the
Coonoo and Bheem streams issue, at full two thousand feet below, it lay
covering them and the surrounding mountains in an unbroken mass, many
hundred feet thick. Thus, though it may seem contradictory, the line of
perpetual congelation, in fact seems fixable at even below the point I
have ventured to indicate, and, I presume, might, on these grounds, be
placed somewhere between fifteen and sixteen thousand feet above the
level of Calcutta.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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