DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20140#0497
GROUP I: BHUTAN, SIKKIM, NEPAL,
IN THE EASTERN HIMALAYA.
Karigun.—Pankabari; Darjiling; Tpnglo; Falut.—Kathmandu.
The Eastern Himalaya, with elevations unrivalled in height and steepness of ascent,
is bordered on the south by plains only 200 to 350 feet high; these plains reach
down to the bay of Bengal without any secondary range modifying the climatological
influence of the temperature and moisture of the tropics.
Sihhim, with which we shall begin, shows best the full power of the ascending-
currents from the plains and the sea. They rush high up its slopes where directly
exposed, or follow the course of its valleys: the mildest temperature, the greatest
amount of moisture, mist, and fog, and a quantity of rain only exceeded1 in a few
subtropical regions (a little less distant still from the sea), are the consequences.
The direct action of the sun is much reduced in frequency by the cloudy sky,
but the moist atmosphere makes its effect the more powerful upon animal and veget-
able life, and a vegetation as luxuriant as it is characteristic in its forms for these
1 I allude to Cherrapunji, where the amount of rain is 5 times greater still (see p. 180), but where, nevertheless
the moisture from September to May is considerably less. In the outer ranges of Sikkim the quantity of rain
varies between 100 and 130 inches in different years.
IN THE EASTERN HIMALAYA.
Karigun.—Pankabari; Darjiling; Tpnglo; Falut.—Kathmandu.
The Eastern Himalaya, with elevations unrivalled in height and steepness of ascent,
is bordered on the south by plains only 200 to 350 feet high; these plains reach
down to the bay of Bengal without any secondary range modifying the climatological
influence of the temperature and moisture of the tropics.
Sihhim, with which we shall begin, shows best the full power of the ascending-
currents from the plains and the sea. They rush high up its slopes where directly
exposed, or follow the course of its valleys: the mildest temperature, the greatest
amount of moisture, mist, and fog, and a quantity of rain only exceeded1 in a few
subtropical regions (a little less distant still from the sea), are the consequences.
The direct action of the sun is much reduced in frequency by the cloudy sky,
but the moist atmosphere makes its effect the more powerful upon animal and veget-
able life, and a vegetation as luxuriant as it is characteristic in its forms for these
1 I allude to Cherrapunji, where the amount of rain is 5 times greater still (see p. 180), but where, nevertheless
the moisture from September to May is considerably less. In the outer ranges of Sikkim the quantity of rain
varies between 100 and 130 inches in different years.