40 SCIENTIFIC MISSION 
Parung Pass, and down upon the Chumoreleel lake. ‘This route 
is all through our own territory, and that of our dependent, Gholab 
Singh, but the Parung Pass being, according to Trebeck and 
Moorcroft, 19,000 feet high, and covered with snow on its northern 
face, is likely to offer formidable obstacles to our progress. Leh, 
which is our destination, is elevated 11,000 feet above the sea, 
and the Chumoreleel lake 15,000, and as it is impossible in these 
high districts to calculate on finding the country free from snow 
in the middle of September, it is likely we may have a run for it! 
I shall address you again from Leh, which we expect to reach early 
in October, unless an opportunity of writing occurs sooner, and if 
so, I will surely not neglect it. 
“You may easily believe that I enjoy this Expedition im- 
mensely ; though if I were free to govern my own motions, I 
would travel more leisurely, taking shorter marches, and halting, 
now and then, when the country promised to be interesting. If 
the weather continues fair, I hope to find good botanizing in the 
Parung Pass. At a height of 19,000 feet, one must almost touch 
the extreme boundary of Phænogamic vegetation. But, according 
to our school-boy phrase, ‘ we shall see what we shall see.’ 
* My last English letters bore date the 15th of June. News- 
papers, up to the 7th of July, reached us some time ago, and I 
hope the letters are not long behind. The communication with 
Simla is, however, very uncertain. 
“The great object of my desire is now to penetrate northward, 
and to combine this journey with the Flora of Altai. Perhaps I 
may be able, next year, to explore the great mountain chain north — — 
of the Indus, crossing the Passes, here and there, and entering the 
Chinese Territories: a plan in which I should anticipate little dif- 
ficulty, because for several marches beyond the northern face of 
the Passes the country is uninhabited. It would be delightful to 
visit the Russian Possessions, vid Yarkund! but there a disguise 
would probably be needful, and I am naturally rather deficient in 
that appendage to the human countenance, namely, beard, which — 
most effectually baffles recognition. 3 : 
** All these speculations are, however, still in embryo : "ua : 
