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of our yesterday's station, which appeared 600 or 700 feet higher. Being now one and a half miles nearer to it than before, we had every hope of succeeding, so sent off the articles we required there as soon as we could prevail upon our people to move, which was not, however, before 9 o'clock. We were well equipped with instruments for making all requisite observations; we took three barometers, two thermometers, a large theodolite and a small one, a perambulator, a telescope magnifying eighty times, and a smaller one, together with a bundle of sticks to try the boiling water, and a sextant and artificial horizon, with us. We marched a little after ten, and overtook our people not a mile from our halting place; we had infinite trouble in getting them to go on, and were obliged to keep calling out to them the whole way, at one time threatening, and at another coaxing them; to tell the truth, however, we could not have walked much faster ourselves, for we felt a fulness in the head, and experienced a general debility, which together with headaches and pains in the ears and breast, affected us more than the day before. A cold wind that benumbed our hands sprung up, and increased with our height till about 3 P. M., when it died away. After much annoyance, we reached the place where we put up the barometer yesterday, here the man who carried the bundle of sticks sat down and said he must die, as he could not proceed a step further, and neither threats nor the promise of a handsome reward could induce him to move; we accordingly left him, and after an ascent of 700 feet, attained the top of the peak, 19,411 feet above the level of the sea. The road latterly lay over disunited blocks of granite, between which we found large lumps of ice transparent as crystal; we got up the last ascent without much difficulty, which is somewhat surprising. It was 4 P. M. when we gained the summit, so we had no time to make half of the observations we wished; the thermometer was not below twentytwo degrees, but from the wind on the way up, our hands were so numbed, that it was not until we had rubbed them for sometime that we got the use of them. Whilst I was setting up the large theodolite, my brother tried three excellent barometers, which we had the satisfaction to see stand exactly at the same point, 14,675 inches. The Turheegung mountain had an elevation of seventeen degrees, and was not more than two miles distant; the ink froze, and I had only a broken pencil with which I got on very slowly. It was twenty minutes to five before

we had finished our observations, the thermometer was eleven degrees below the freezing point, the cold increasing every instant, and we had 7,600 feet to descend, over a bad road, in a distance of six miles. We cautioned our people against delay, and moved downwards as fast as we could walk; we passed the bundle of sticks where it was left, but the man had disappeared, and we next day understood he had reached camp before us. Night overtook us two and half miles from Nako, and my brother had the misfortune to fall and hurt his leg so much, that we greatly feared he would be obliged to remain where he was until assistance could be obtained from the village; after sitting down for half an hour, he found himself able to proceed at a slow pace, so we moved on, and shortly after lost the road by going too far to the right. We got in amongst a confused jumble of gigantic masses of rock, from which we found it no easy matter to extricate ourselves; we wandered about amidst them almost as chance directed for one and half-hours, many of the stones shook under us, and we passed places frightful even in daylight. About nine we espied a light below us, and heard the roaring of the Lee river, which seemed quite close; it being then calm, this made us imagine we had gone beyond the village, but judging from the strange structure of the surrounding mountains which we could scarcely mistake, we thought it impossible we could have done so, more especially as we had seen no cultivation, and there are a good many fields around Nako; we therefore went on and arrived at a Lama's temple that we recognised about a quarter of a mile from camp; we called out, and were answered by some of our people, who came to meet us with a couple of lights. We reached camp at half-past nine, not so much tired as might have been expected; only four of our servants arrived that night, the rest stopped without firewood at our former halting place, and came up late next day, having their feet so much swollen by the frost, as to be unable to carry loads during the rest of our journey. The distance to-day was ten and a half miles. Our last three marches were fraught with accidents; three barometers, a perambulator, and thermometer were smashed in pieces, and the small theodolite, a very neat instrument by Dolland, was rendered unfit for taking elevations, the nonius having been broken off; we had remaining two theodolites, a surveying compass, four barometers, and as many thermometers, a strong perambulator, a couple of sextants, a reflecting circle, a repeating

one, and a chronometer, so we were still very well supplied with instru

ments.

We had great reason to be thankful, that during these last three days there was very little wind, and none at all when we visited the highest peaks, for had there been any when the thermometer was so low, it must have chilled us, so that we could not have moved, and to have remained at such heights for a night, would have been almost certain death.

19th October.-As many of our servants were unable to walk, from fatigue and sore feet, we halted. The village of Nako is situate about a mile to the east of the Lee river, and is the highest we met with during our tour, being not less than 11,850 feet above the sea; it is pretty large, and inhabited by Lama Tartars, rather different in appearance from those at Shipkè, and not so much resembling the Chinese; there is more cultivation about it than would be expected considering its elevation, the fields which are chiefly wheat and a kind of pulse, extend to the height of 13,000 feet, and have stone dykes around them; yaks are used here in the plough, they are hardy animals, but often vicious. The grain produced, as at most other villages in Koonawur, is insufficient for consumption, and the people subsist by their flocks; there is a pond near this, surrounded by apricot trees, upon which in winter the boys amuse themselves by sliding, but they do not know the use of skates. This morning the thermometer was eighteen degrees below the freezing point, a shower of snow had fallen upon the adjacent mountains, and every thing indicated the sudden approach of winter; it was now time for us to think of returning, so we decided upon going no farther than Shealkhur. We here received a visit from the Wuzeer Loktus, who has charge of Hungrung, one of the subdivisions of Koonawur, containing ten or twelve Tartar villages, which lies on both sides of the Lee river from Shealkhur to the Sutlej; he came here to collect the revenue, and brought us a couple of chowrees, and some fine purple grapes from Soongnum.

20th October.-Marched to Chango nine miles, the road was in general good and broad, lying about a mile from the left bank of the Lee river; we found a great deal of red clay at the height of 12,000 feet, and above the hills, were of granite and gneiss. Chango is situate on a pleasant spot between two rivulets near the Lee.

21st October.-Marched to Shealkhur, a fort and village belonging to Busehur, under charge of Loktus; its distance from Chango is three and half miles; the road was rocky upon the left bank of the Lee, until under the village, where we crossed it by a bad wooden bridge, the bed of the river is here 10,000 feet above the sea, and the breadth of the stream 92 feet; but it is not nearly so deep or rapid as the Sutlej.

The fort of Shealkhur is situate in latitude 32°, and longitude 78° 38′, upon the confines of Ludak and Chinese Tartary; it is in a most ruinous state, and the village is a poor place.

The first Ludak village was said to be a day's march to the northward, but as a single fall of snow might have shut the passes, we gave up the idea of visiting it.

From Koonawur to Garoo there are three roads, one from Shipkè has already been mentioned, another from Shealkhur not so good as the former, lies through Choomoortee, an elevated country under a Deba, where the people dwell in tents, do not cultivate the ground, but subsist by their flocks; the third road from Nisung crosses part of the Himalaya range at a pass called Gangtung, which is represented as being extremely difficult. It is worthy of remark, that the Koonawurees estimate the height of mountains by the difficulty of breathing they expe rience in ascending them, which, as before noticed, they ascribe to a poisonous plant, but from all our enquiries, and we made them almost at every village, we could find nobody that had seen the plant, and from our own experience, we are inclined to attribute the effect to the rarefaction of the atmosphere, since we felt the like sensation at heights where there were no vegetable productions.

The traders who cross Gangtung Pass put on so many clothes to defend themselves from the excessive cold, that they can scarcely walk; they wear a large garment with sleeves reaching almost to the feet, made of sheepskin with the woolly side inwards, trowsers and stockings of the same material, a kind of rude gloves of very thick woollen stuff, and caps and shoes of blanket; they likewise occasionally wrap three or four blankets round them, and thus accoutred, set out on their perilous journey. No herbage is met with on the way for two days, and travellers are said to have dreadful headaches, and pains in the ears even when at rest; many goats and sheep die annually, and it is no uncommon thing for the people that attend them, who also some

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times perish, to lose their fingers and toes. This road leads past Chubrung, and crosses the Sutlej at Chuksum Sango, a wooden bridge with a railing of iron chains, under Tooling a large collection of tents, where there is a temple with a gilt cupola roof held in great repute amongst the Lamas. Leh, or Leo, the capital of Ludak, on the right bank of the Indus, is reckoned sixteen day's journey from Shealkhur. There are several roads from Koonawur to it, one from Wangpo, another from Soongnam, and two from Shealkhur; they are rocky at first, but afterwards improve. Leo is about midway between Kashmeer and Garoo, being eighteen marches from either.

22d October.-Proceeded to Lee, a village on the right bank of the Lee river, near the junction of a small stream with it. The distance is twelve miles, and as it was late when we started, we did not reach it until upwards of an hour after dark, and half our baggage did not arrive that night. The road was bad, crossing two rivulets, the ascent from the latter of which was extremely tedious and dangerous, being very steep upon sand and gravel that seemed to have but lately fallen; it was a natural slope, and much caution was requisite to avoid putting the loose earth in motion, for there were no marks of a foot-path; with all our care, however, it was not unfrequent to slip back many yards, and sometimes near a hundred feet of sand gave way at once, carrying the traveller with it, but not very quickly; the greatest danger arose from stones displaced by our people who were a-head, which every now and then whirled past us with astonishing rapidity.

23rd October.-Marched seven and a quarter miles to Hango, situate on the bank of a stream flowing to the eastward to mix its waters with the Lee. This valley contains five or six villages, around which there is more cultivation than we had often seen in Koonawur. The road commenced with a steep ascent of 2,500 feet, and then was good and even to Hango, 11,468 feet above the sea.

24th October.-Marched to Soongnum nine and a quarter miles; at first we had an ascent of 3,400 feet by a good but steep road to the top of Hungrung Pass, 14,837 feet in height; this pass separates Hungrung from another of the divisions of Koonawur, named Sooè or Shooung, under the Wuzeer Budreedas; the mountains immediately on either side might be fully 1,000 feet above us, but there was little snow upon them,

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