pping down pretty steeply to its sides. The lower
slopes are cultivated, but the land is usually stony and uneven, and as
a whole the crops are not of a high class. The open valleys of the
Jhelam in Kashmir and of the Bias in Kulu are exceptions. Passes in the
Himalaya are not defiles between high cliffs, but cross the crest of a
ridge at a point where the chain is locally depressed, and snow melts
soonest. In the Outer and Mid Himalaya the line of perpetual snow is at
about 16,000 feet, but for six months of the year the snow-line comes
down 5000 feet lower. In the Inner Himalaya and the Muztagh-Karakoram,
to which the monsoon does not penetrate, the air is so dry that less
snow falls and the line is a good deal higher.

[Illustration: Fig. 7. R. Jhelam in Kashmir--View towards Mohand Marg.]

[Illustration: Fig. 8. Near Naran in Kagan Glen, Hazara.]

~Himalayan Scenery.~--Certain things strike any observant traveller in the
Himalaya. One is the comparative absence of running or still water,
except in the height of the rainy season, away from the large rivers.
The slope is so rapid that ordinary falls of rain run off with great
rapidity. The mountain scenery is often magnificent and the forests are
beautiful, but the absence of water robs the landscape of a charm which
would make it really perfect. Where this too is present, as in the
valley of the Bias in Kulu and those of the Jhelam and its tributaries
in Kashmir and Hazara, the eye has its full fruition of content.
Another is the silence of the forests. Bird and beast are there, but
they are little in evidence. A third feature which can hardly be missed
is the contrast between the northern and the southern slopes. The former
will often be clothed with forest while the latter is a bare stony slope
covered according to season with brown or green grass interspersed with
bushes of indigo, barberry, or the hog plum (Prinsepia utilis). The
reason is that the northern side enjoys much more shade, snow lies
longer, and the supply of moisture is therefore greater. The grazier for
the same reason is less tempted to fire the hill side in order to
promote the growth of grass, a practice which is fatal to all forest
growth. The rich and varied flora of the Himalaya will be referred to
later.

~Muztagh-Karakoram Ranges.~--The Muztagh-Karakoram mountains form the
northern watershed of the Indus. The range consists of more than one
main axis. The name Karakoram is appropriated to