“In this part of the Himalaya it is not, on an average of years, till the beginning of December, that the snow line appears decidedly to descend for the winter. After the end of September, indeed, when the rains are quite over, light falls of snow are not of very uncommon occurrence on the higher mountains, even down to 12,000 feet; but their effects usually disappear very quickly, often in a few hours. The latter part of October, the whole of November, and the beginning of December, are here generally characterised by the beautiful serenity of the sky; and it is at this season, on the southern edge of the belt, that the line of perpetual snow is seen to attain its greatest elevation. “The following are the results of trigonometrical measurements of the elevation of the inferior edge of snow on spurs of the Treslú and Nandádevi groups of peaks, made, before the winter snow had begun, in November, 1848. ┌─────────┬────────────────────────────────────────────┬──────────────┐ │ │ │Height on face│ │ Point │ Height as observed on face exposed to the │ exposed to │ │observed.│ East. │West. Observed│ │ │ │from Almorah. │ ├─────────┼──────────────┬──────────────┬──────────────┼──────────────┤ │ │From Almorah, │ From Binsar, │ │ │ │ │(height, 5586 │(height, 7969 │ Mean. │ │ │ │ ft.) │ ft.) │ │ │ ├─────────┼──────────────┼──────────────┼──────────────┼──────────────┤ │ No. │ Feet. │ Feet. │ Feet. │ Feet. │ │ 1 │ 16,599│ 16,767│ 16,683│ 15,872│ │ 2 │ 16,969│ 17,005│ 16,987│ │ │ 3 │ 17,186│ 17,185│ 17,185│ 14,878│ │ 4 │ 15,293│ 15,361│ 15,327│ │ └─────────┴──────────────┴──────────────┴──────────────┴──────────────┘