Sir,
I am grateful to Dr Kick for questioning a statement in our paper (Reference GilbertGilbert and others, 1969, p. 58) and particularly for his further references on height of the snow line in the Karakoram. There is difficulty in gleaning this from expedition papers; any error in interpretation is the authors’ and not Untersteiner’s. “Firn” is generally understood but the problem is really one of interpreting the snow line in the field, particularly in these subtropical ranges of marked relief. Dr Kick’s point is very pertinent, especially during the International Hydrological Decade with widely dispersed observers facing similar problems.
27 March 1969