shone out brightly, and was agreeably warm to the feel,
while the temperature of the air rose nearly to, or a little
above, the freezing-point. In the earlier part of the
winter, the snow melted rapidly, and the ground in
the open valley was generally nearly free of it before the
next fall. After the beginning of January, however, the
cold increased, and the snow lay permanently, except on
the most sunny slopes. The sun seemed to have much
less power, and little thaw took place except on rocks
and beaten paths. The diminution in the quantity of
snow by evaporation was often considerable.
The greatest cold which was registered at Iskardo was
at daybreak on the 8th of February, when Fahrenheit’s
thermometer stood at half a degree above zero. The
mean temperature at sunrise during the whole winter
was 19-|°, and that at two p .m . 33f°. The mean temperature
during the period from the 28th of December to
the 81st of January was 27^°, and from the 1st to
the 24th of February 25f°. The increase of cold was
principally by the depression of the night temperature,
the mean highest temperature being within a fraction
of a degree the same during both periods.
On the first or second day of clear weather after a fall
of snow, the temperature in the morning was often very
low, with abundant hoar-frost, which, except at such
times, was not seen at all. The surface of the plain was
covered with a dense fog, which remained till nearly noon
before the sun was able to dispel it. On the second or
third day the sky would become hazy, the sun being
partly obscured by a thin stratum of cloud at a great
elevation. During the continuance of this haze, the
temperature was always more elevated than when the
sky was clear. The hazy weather was once or twice
dissipated by violent winds, without any fall of snow on
the open plain; but more generally it increased gradually,
till the sky was completely and densely overcast, and
snow began again to fall, perhaps most frequently during
the night.
During the greater part of the winter the snow was
invariably in extremely minute grains. It was not till the
latter part of February, when spring was rapidly approaching,
that large flakes fell. I more than once observed
the phenomenon of small quantities of extremely
fine-grained snow falling when the sky was quite clear,
and the air at the surface of the earth quite motionless.
During clear weather very little thaw took place, the
cold produced by radiation appearing to counteract the
sun’s action; at the same time the snow diminished
rapidly by evaporation, which was not the case when the
sky was overcast.
The fall of snow was evidently much less considerable
in the open plain than on the mountains round Iskardo.
During the heavier falls, the snow on the steep mountain
slopes often slipped downwards. It was but rarely
that these avalanches were visible, but the noise of the
snow in motion was heard like distant thunder, often
many times a day, and the bare spots which it had left
could be seen after the snow-storm had ceased. When
the weather was settled, the wind was in general very
gentle, and blew up the valley of the Indus; during
snow-storms it was usually violent, and very irregular in
direction. The storms came mostly from the south