Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1880-01-16
Snow Two Hundred Feet Deep.

The following remarkable account,
from the London Times, of enormous
snowfalls in Northwestern India, shows
what a world of vapor is carried inland
on the monsoons from the Indian ocean
to strike against the loftiest mountain
chain in the world, and be precipitated
in such snow and rains as occur on the
foot hills of the Himalayas. About the
sources of some of the great rivers of
India occur the heaviest rains ever
known; and further east, in Cashmere,
it seems the SHOWS are sometimes ter
rife.
Some interesting details of this extra
ordinary snowfall in Cashmere in 1878
are given in paper in the just issued
number of the Journal of the Asiatic
Society of Bengal, by Mr.. Lydekker.
Early in the month of October, 1877,
snow commenced to fall in tie valley
and mountains of Cashmere, and from
that time up to May, 1878, there seemed
to have been an almost incessant snow
fall in the higher mountains and valleys;
indeed, in places, it frequently showed
without intermission for upward of ten
days at time. At DraS, which has an
an elevation of 10, 900 feet, Mr.. Lydekker
estimated the snowfall, from the native
account, as having been from thirty to
forty feet thick. The effects of this enor-
nous snowfall were to be seen through
out the country. At Dras, the we'll
built travellers bungalow, which has
stood somo thirty years, was entirely
crushed down by the weight of snow
which fell upon it. In almost every vii
lage of the neighboring mountains more
or less of the log houses had fallen, while
at Gulmarg and Sonomarg, where no at
tempt was made to remove the snow,
almost all the huts of the European Wis
itors were utterly broken down by it.
In the higher mountains whole hilisides
have been denuded ofvegetation and soil
by the enormous avalanches which
swept down them, leaving vast gaps in
the principal forests, and closing the val
lcys below with the debris of rocks and
trees.
AS an instance of the amount of snow
which must have fallen in the higher
levels, Mr. Lydekker mentions the Zogi
pass, leading from Cashmere to Dras,
which has an elevation of II, 300 feet.
He crossed this early in August last
year, and then found that the whole of
the ravine leading up to the pass from
the Cashmere side was still filled with
snow, which he estimated in places to
be at least $50 feet thick In ordinary
seasons this road in the Zogi pass is clear
| from snow some time during the mon h
| of June. AS another instance of the
great snowfall Mr.. Lydekker takes the
valley leading from the town of Dras up
to the pass separating that place from
the valley of the Kishengung river.
! About the middle of August almost the
whole of the tirst-mentioned valley. at
an elevation of $4,000 feet, was COM
pletely choked with snow, which in
places was at least 200 feet deep. In the
same district all passes over $4,000 feet
were still deep in snow at the same sea-
sen of the year.
Mr.. Lydekker gives other instances of
snow in places in September where no
snow had ever before been observed
after June. AS to the destruction of
animal life in the Upper Wardwan val
ley large numbers of ibex were seen i'm
bedded in snow; in one place upward
of sixty heads were counted, and in
another not less than one hundred were
counted. The most convincing proofs,
however, of the havoc caused among
the wild animals by the great snowfall is
the fact that scarcely any ibex were seen
during last summer in those portions of
the Wardwan and Tilail valleys which
are ordinarily considered as sure finds.
So, alsc, the red bear and the marmot
were far less numerous than usual. Mr..
Lydekker estimates thai the destruction
to animal life caused by snow hes far
exceeded any slaughter which could be
inflicted by sportsmen during a period
of at least five or six years.