Note 411 — APPENDIX

This is contrary to the conclusions of all meteorologists who have studied the climate of the Alps, and is entirely due to the local disturbances which I have so often dwelt upon, and principally to the unequal distribution of moisture in the loftier rearward regions, and the aridity of Tibet. Professor James Forbes states (Ed. Phil. Trans., v. xiv. p. 489):—1. That the decrement of temperature with altitude is most rapid in summer: this (as I shall hereafter show) is not the case in the Himalaya, chiefly because the warm south moist wind then prevails. 2. That the annual range of temperature diminishes with the elevation: this, too, is not the case in Sikkim, because of the barer surface and more cloudless skies of the rearward loftier regions. 3. That the diurnal range of temperature diminishes with the height: that this is not the cane follows from the same cause. 4. That radiation is least in winter: this is negatived by the influence of the summer rains.