??
[footnote] *Darwin, 'Journal of the Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle',
p. 297. As the volcano of Aconcagua was not at that time in a state of
eruption, we must not ascribe the remarkable phenomenon of this absence of
snow to the internal heat of the mountain (to the escape of heated air
through fissures), as is sometimes the case with Cotopaxi. Gilles, in the
'Journal of Natural Science', 1830, p. 316.
In
p 331
an almost equal northern latitude (from 30 degrees 45' to 31 degrees), the
snow'line on the southern declivity of the Himalaya lies at an elevation of
12,982 feet, which is about the same as the height which we might have
assigned to it from a comparison with other mountain chains; on the northern
declivity, however, under the influence of the high lands of Thibet (whose
mean elevation appears to be about 11,510 feet), the snow-line is situated
at a height of 16,630 feet. This phenomenon, which has long been contested
both in Europe and in India, and whose causes I have attempted to develop in
various works, published since 1820,* possesses other grounds of interest
than
p 332
those of a purely physical nature, since it exercises no inconsiderable
degree of influence on the mode of life of numerous tribes -- the
meteorological processes of the atmosphere being the controlling causes on
which depend the agricultural or pastoral pursuits of the inhabitants of
extensive tracts of continents.
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