Himalayan Journals, vol 2 by J. D. Hooker (great reads TXT) 📖

of Vapour .236 .302 .295 .480

DEW-POINT

Mean 34.3 41.9 41.3 55.2

Max. 39.7 ... ... ...

Min. 29.7 ... ... ...

Max. Difference 32.8 52.3 44.7 20.8

Min. Difference 23.8 15.7 ... ...

Weight of Vapour in cubic feet 2.574 3.271 3.089 5.127

SATURATION

Mean .405 .324 .264 .511

Max. .450 .603 ... ...

Min. .327 .176 ... ...

Number of observations 3 3 1 1

TERRESTRIAL RADIATION.

Mean

Air in Shade. Sunrise 60.0 62.5 63.0 58.0 60.9

Exposed Th. 55.0 54.5 55.5 53.0 54.6

Difference 5.0 8.0 7.5 5.0 6.4

Exposed on earth ... 56.0 50.5 54.0 53.5

Difference ... 6.5 12.5 4.0 7.7

Exposed on grass 52.0 52.5 50.5 50.0 51.3

Difference 8.0 10.0 12.5 8.0 9.6

APPENDIX B.

ON THE MINERAL CONSTITUENTS AND ALGAE OF THE HOT-SPRINGS OF BEHAR,

THE HIMALAYA, AND OTHER PARTS OF INDIA, ETC., INCLUDING NOTES ON THE

FUNGI OF THE HIMALAYA.

(By Dr. R. D. Thomson and the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, M.A., F.L.S.)

The following remarks, for which I am indebted to the kindness of the able chemist and naturalist mentioned above, will be highly valued, both by those who are interested in the many curious physiological

questions involved in the association of the most obscure forms of

vegetable life with the remarkable phenomena of mineral springs; or in the exquisitely beautiful microscopic structure of the lower

Algae, which has thrown so much light upon a branch of natural

history, whose domain, like that of astronomy, lies to a great extent beyond the reach of the unassisted eye.--J.D.H.

Mineral water, Soorujkoond, Behar (vol. i., chap. ii), contains

chloride of sodium and sulphate of soda.

Mineral water, hot springs, Yeumtong, altitude 11,730 feet (see

vol. ii., chap. xxii). Disengages sulphuretted hydrogen when

fresh.--This water was inodorous when the bottle was opened.

The saline matter in solution was considerably less than in the

Soorujkoond water, but like that consisted of chloride of sodium and sulphate of soda. Its alkaline character suggests the probability of its containing carbonate of soda, but none was detected.

The rocks decomposed by the waters of the spring consist of granite impregnated with sulphate of alumina. It appears that in this case

the sulphurous waters of Yeumtong became impregnated in the air with sulphuric acid, which decomposed the felspar,* [I have, in my

journal, particularly alluded to the garnets (an aluminous mineral) being thus entirely decomposed.-J.D.H.] and united with its alumina.

I found traces only of potash in the salt.

Sulphuretted hydrogen waters appear to give origin to sulphuric acid, when the water impregnated with the gas reaches the surface; and I

have fine fibrous specimens of sulphate of lime accompanied with

sulphur, from the hot springs of Pugha in west Tibet, brought by

Dr. T. Thomson.

Mineral water, Momay hot springs, (vol. ii., chap. xxii).--When

the bottle was uncorked, a strong smell of sulphuretted hydrogen was perceived. The water contains about twenty-five grains per imp.

gallon, of chloride of sodium, sulphate and carbonate of soda; the

reaction being strongly alkaline when the solution was concentrated.

Effloresced earth from Behar (vol. i., chap. i), consists of

granite sand, mixed with sesquicarbonate of soda.

_On the Indian Algae which occur principally in different parts of

the Himalayan Range, in the hot-sprinys of Soorujkoond in Bengal,

Pugha in Tibet, and Momay in Sikkim; and on the Fungi of the

Himalayas. By the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, M.A.

It is not my intention in the present appendix to give specific

characters or even accurately determined specific names to the

different objects within its scope, which have come under

investigation, as collected by Dr. Hooker and Dr. Thomson. To do so would require far more time than I have at present been able to

devote to the subject, for though every species has been examined

microscopically, either by myself or Mr. Broome, and working

sketches secured at the same time, the specific determination of

fresh water Algae from Herbarium specimens is a matter which

requires a very long and accurate comparison of samples from every

available locality, and in the case of such genera as _Zygnema,

Tyndaridea, and _Conferva, is, after all, not a very satisfactory process.

The object in view is merely to give some general notion of the forms which presented themselves in the vast districts visited by the

above-mentioned botanists, comprising localities of the greatest

possible difference as regards both temperature and elevation; but

more especially in the hot-springs which occur in two distant parts of the Himalayas and in Behar, and these again under very different degrees of elevation and of extrinsic temperature.

The Algae from lower localities are but few in number, and some of

these of very common forms. We have for instance from the Ganges,

opposite Bijnour, a Batrachospermum and Conferva crispata, the

former purple below, with specimens of Chantransia, exactly as they might occur in the Thames. The Conferva, or more properly

Cladophora, which occurs also under various forms, at higher

elevations, as in the neighbourhood of Simla and Iskardo, swarms with little parasites, but of common or uninteresting species. In the

Bijnour specimens, these consist of common forms of _Synedra,

Meridion circulare, and a _Cymbella, on others from Dacca, there

are about three species of Synedra,* {Two of these appear to be _S.

Vaucheriae_ and S. inaequalis.] a minute Navicula and Gomphonema curvatum. Nothing, in fact, can well be more European. One splendid Alga, however, occurs at Fitcoree, in Behar, on the banks of nullahs, which are dry in hot weather, forming a purple fleece of coarse

woolly hairs, which are singularly compressed, and of extreme beauty under the microscope, from the crystalline green of the articulated string which threads the bright red investing sheath. This curious

Alga calls to mind in its colouring Caenocoleus Smithii, figured in English Botany, t. 2940, but it has not the common sheath of that

Alga, and is on a far larger scale. One or two other allied forms, or species, occur in East Nepal, to which I purpose giving, together

with the Behar plant, the generic name of Erythronema. From the

Soane River, also, is an interesting Alga, belonging to the curious genus Thwaitesia, in which the division of the endochrome in the

fertile cells into four distinct masses, sometimes entirely free, is beautifully marked. In some cases, indeed, instead of the ordinary

spores, the whole moss is broken up into numerous bodies, as in the fertile joints of Ulothrix, and probably, as in that case, the

resultant corpuscles are endowed with active motion. In Silhet,

again, is a magnificent Zygnema, allied to Z. nitidum, with large oval spores, about 1/285 part of an inch long, and a dark golden

brown colour, and containing a spiral green endochrome.

Leaving, however, the lower parts of India, I shall first take the

species which occur in Khasia, Sikkim, Eastern Nepal, and the

adjoining parts of Tibet.

In the hot valleys of the Gtreat Rungeet, at an elevation of about

2000 feet, we have the Erythronema, but under a slightly different form; at Nunklow, at about the same height; in Khasia, again, at

twice that elevation; in Eastern Nepal, at 12,000; and, finally, at Momay, reaching up to 16,000 feet. In water, highly impregnated with oxide of iron, at 4000 feet in Sikkim, a Leptothrix occurred in

great abundance, coloured with the oxide, exactly as is the case with Algae which grow in iron springs in Europe. At elevations between

5000 and 7000 feet, several European forms occur, consisting of

_Ulothrix, Zygnema, Oscillatoria, Lyngbya, Sphaerozyga, Scytonema,

Conferva, and _Cladophora. The species may indeed not be identical with European species, but they are all more or less closely allied to well-known Hydrophytes. One very interesting form, however, either belonging to the genus Zygnema, or possibly constituting a distinct genus, occurs in streams at 5000 feet in Sikkim, consisting of highly gelatinous threads of the normal structure of the Zygnema, but

forming a reticulated mass. The threads adhere to each other

laterally, containing only a single spiral endochrome, and the

articulations are very long. Amongst the threads are mixed those of some species of Tyndaridea. There is also a curious Hormosiphon,

at a height of 7000 feet; forming anastomosing gelatinous masses.

A fine new species of Lyngbya extends up as high as 11,000 feet.

At 13,000 feet occurs either some simple