CHUMBA STATE AND BRITISH LAHOtTL. 369 



until lost in the slopes of the snow-capped Second Eange. The 

 whole of this panorama of low hills and spurs, filling up the space 

 from the First to the Second Eange, constitutes the basin of the 

 Eavee. It extends eastward to a point where these two ranges 

 seem to unite through the lofty spur which forms the Andrar 

 Pass, and separates the head-waters of the Eavee from those of 

 the Bias. From the Andrar Pass the Upper Eavee basin extends 

 north-west to a little below Chumba city, and then turns south- 

 west to Shoojanpore. The whole of this country is designated 

 the Eavee basin in these notes. Having fully admired the 

 bewildering confusion of low hills of the Eavee basin, I com- 

 menced the descent to the Eavee and Chumba city. The road 

 leads through magnificent forests of Cedrus Deodara, a tree 

 which is extremely rare on the southern slopes of the First 

 Eange. In a few hours Chumba city, at an altitude of 3000 

 : feet, was reached ; and I began to realize the fact that I was 

 in a new country and amid a new people. The giant Man- 

 Mahesh and his fellows, sifting and purifying the air, intervenes 

 between the damp malarious plains of India ; and the nature 

 : . and condition of the vegetation reminds one that he has advanced 

 ; one stage away from the excessive rains of India towards the 

 dry regions of the Inner Himalayas. The changes in the 

 vegetation on crossing each of the three successive ranges of 

 this region point conclusively to the great influence exercised 

 by high mountain-ranges in the distribution of plants. It 

 must not be supposed, however, that it is always mere altitude 

 or snow that exercises this influence ; for the changes obser- 

 vable on crossing from the southern to the northern slopes of the 

 First Eange are quite as great as those observed on crossing from 

 the one side to the other of the Second Eange with its perpetual 

 belt of snow. It is much more likely that the degree of humidity 

 has to do with these changes, since they are observable on 

 ihe sides of a range over which there could be no other diffi- 

 culty in the way of plants spreading from the one side to the 

 lother. 



\ II. The Secosd Eange. — From Chumba the road takes the 

 traveller through low hills to the spurs and slopes of the Second 

 Eange ; and after five or six days march he finds himself in a 

 iaarrow cutting through the snows, forming one of the many lofty 

 passes (from 15,000 to 19,000 feet in altitude) leading from the 

 Eavee basin into that of the Chundra-Baga, as the Upper Chenab 

 W 2 e 2 



