measured miles: he performed this journey in sixteen hours, including halts; yet two of the ascents on this road are 2,600 and 2,200, and several of the others 1,000 feet of perpendicular height, and the descents are in the same proportion.

SHUGHARS.

At all the elevated passes there are a number of square piles of stones, called Shughar, upon which passengers usually place a piece of quartz, or attach rags to poles, which are fixed in the middle; there are also several shughars on the neighbouring heights, sacred to the deotas, or spirits of the mountains, who are supposed to inhabit the loftiest and most inaccessible points, especially where there is much snow. The shughars at the passes are erected by travellers, but those on the higher peaks are commonly made at the expense of some wealthy pilgrim not much accustomed to the mountains, who has succeeded in crossing a pass, which is reckoned an arduous undertaking by an inhabitant of the plains.

When my brother and I stopped at Boorendo, in October, 1818, the guides requested us to give them some money for the construction of two shughars, to propitiate the genii of the place, otherwise we should undoubtedly perish from cold, since it was a thing unheard of to halt at such a height. We might, perhaps, have indulged them, had we not thought we should have had many demands of the same kind. We likewise wished to shew them the possibility of remaining a night at the pass without

paying attention to their idle superstitions; they, however, contrived to inspire our followers with such terror, that even our Mahommedan servants built two shughars, and adorned them with pieces of cloth. At some of the passes, where the ground was entirely concealed by snow of a great depth, we were surprised to find it completely covered with a kind of gnat, resembling a musquitoe; they were in a state of torpidity, and at first we thought them dead, but breathing upon them caused them to jump about, and the sunshine revived them.

SEASONS AND CLIMATE.

The climate of Koonawur is as varied as the face of the country, and a person may experience every change, from the heat of the torrid zone almost to the frozen temperature of a Lapland winter; I had once a transition from 33' to 109° of Fahrenheit, in a distance of thirteen or fourteen miles, and this occurred nearly at the same times of the day at both places; had it been from sunrise at the highest, till 1 or 2 P.M. at the lowest station, the difference would have been 10' or 15° more.

The growth of plants depends upon situation and the summer temperature, and not the absolute altitude of the place; thus, near the outer Himalaya, which is partly under the influence of the periodical rains, at villages only 8000 feet above the level of the sea, which are considerably removed from the bed of a large river, there is only one harvest; but, in the interior, there are two crops upon the same ground, even at 10,000 feet, if the spot be in a valley surrounded by mountains that do not conceal

the sun too long. In the former places the temperature is much more uniform than at the latter, where the summer is sultry, and the winter extremely cold. From 8000 to 10,000 feet, in favourable situations, such as Murung, Soongnum, Chango, and Leeo, the temperature of July and August is from 68' to 72°, and the October temperature is about 50°; at 12,000 feet, the summer temperature, from a few observations, appears to be from 59° to 64°, and in October, it is 3' or 4' below 40'; but at this time the thermometer, at sunrise, is from 20° to 28°.

Generally speaking, the spring months are March, April, and May, in which there is a good deal of rain, but, at 12,000 and 13,000 feet, there can be scarcely said to be any spring, as the grains are seldom sown till the end of April; they, however, sprout up with astonishing rapidity, and are even cut in August; but there is no time for a second crop at these elevations, as the frost is severe in the beginning of October. June, July, and part of August, form the summer; and the latter end of August, September, and October, are the autumn months, according to the height. Snow always falls in November, if not sooner; it commonly lies till April, and sometimes even longer. In the interior, at 9000 and 10,000 feet, snow is scarcely ever above a foot in depth, and at 12,000, it is very rarely two feet, although, nearer the outer range, four or five feet are usual at heights of 7000 or 8000 feet. In these last places, there is rain in July, August, and September, but it is not near so heavy as in the lower hills. When Hindoostan is deluged

for three months, the upper parts of Koonawur are refreshed by partial light showers; and, with the exception of the valley of the Buspa, the periodical rains do not extend farther to the eastward than long. 77°. In these months, the few clouds that pass over the Himalaya are attracted by the lofty mountains, and form a pretty regular belt at 16,000 and 18,000 feet, above which the chain of snowy summits protrudes its sharp points.

In summer, from the reverberation of the solar rays, the heat in the bed of the Sutluj, and other large streams, is oppressive, and quite sufficient to bring to maturity grapes of a delicious flavour, of which raisins, and two kinds of spiritucus liquor are made ;* in July and August, even at the highest places, the sun's force is powerful; at 16,000 and 18,000 feet we always found an umbrella necessary, and at Neebrung Pass the thermometer, lying on the ground for a few minutes, rose to 105° in the sun, although the temperature of the wind at the same time was only 33'.

The winter is often rigorous, and in some parts there is scarcely any moving out of the villages from the quantity of snow.

The winds blow with the greatest violence in October and later in the year: their direction is, of course, influenced by the valleys; but, on peaks upwards of 20,000 feet, off which I have seen the snow drifted in showers for days together, and at heights of 16,000 feet, the winds were always from the W. or S. W. They are so prevalent from these quarters, that, on the way to the high passes, the

* One resembles whiskey, and the other is not unlike raisin wine.

enclosures for the cattle, which occur at each stage, and are erected of loose stones, have always the western side highest: at this season the wind is perfectly devoid of moisture, and its extreme aridity is such, that it parches up every thing exposed to it, and the boards of our books were more bent than I ever remember seeing them during the hottest weather in the plains of India. The winds are generally at their highest between two and three P. M., and so great is the fury, that a person on an exposed place can keep his footing only with the utmost difficulty, even when the thermometer was 4° above freezing point. So rapidly was the heat withdrawn, that standing five or ten minutes in the draft, I have had my hands so benumbed with cold, that I could not use them for a couple of hours afterwards. The inhabitants know this well, and when we crossed passes of 14,000 and 15,000 feet in the end of October, the guides were always eager that we should start at sunrise, or soon after, although the temperature was below freezing, on purpose that we might reach the highest places before the wind had attained its utmost force.

AGRICULTURE.

The spaces of arable land are few, and the cultivation is commonly in narrow strips along the brows of the mountains. The crops for the most part are poor, and a great want of grain pervades the whole country in times of scarcity, horse chesnuts, after being steeped in water for two or three days to take away their bitterness, are dried and ground into