xiv INTRODUCTION. 
stream, is here about forty feet in thickness, the steam from the hot springs melting 
all the snow which it reaches, dome-like excavations are formed early in the season, 
which have a very striking appearance when seen from within. The snow-bed is 
bounded to the right and left by mural precipices. About 500 yards beyond the springs, 
part of the base of the great Jumnotri Mountain begins to rise, and its face, cased in 
ice and snow, is visible to the height of about 4,000 feet, closing up the defile in which 
the Jumna originates, which is seen falling in a shallow rill about three feet wide from 
the rock, where this becomes abrupt. The Jumna is separated from the Ganges by a 
ramification of the Jumnotri cluster of snowy peaks, which was first crossed by Mr. J. 
Fraser in 1816; and then by Captains Hodgson and Herbert, at the Bamsaroo Pass, ele- 
vated 15,447 feet, over deep snow in August 1818; lastly by Lieutenant James Stephen, 
to whom I am indebted for many specimens of the rocks and plants from the neighbour- 
hood of this very interesting locality. In tracing the Ganges to its source, the 
Bhagirethi branch of this river was found, forming a junction at Bhairo-ghatti, elevated 
8,511 feet, with its foaming rival, the Jahnavi. This, the larger stream, by which there 
is a pass to Tibet, has its source to the northward of the ridge, which bounds the 
Bhagirethi to the N.E. It forces its way through the Himalaya, about three marches 
above Bhairo-ghatti. Beyond the snowy range its course appears to be N. 70° Ex, 
while that of the Ganges is considerably to the S. of E. above Bhairo-ghatti. It is not 
until it reaches Sookhee, that the Ganges, forcing through the snowy peaks within which 
it has been produced, assumes a course of about S. 20° W. By barometrical observation, 
the elevation of Gungotri, first visited by Mr. J. Fraser in 1816, was ascertained to be 
10,319 feet. Beyond this Captains Hodgson and Herbert reached a very extensive 
snow-bed, and bivouacked at 11,160 feet of elevation. Next day, ascending the 
course of the snow-bed, they reached an elevation of 12,914 feet, and finding a piece 
of level ground, a primary base of 319 feet was measured, and with it a longer base of 
667°2 feet obtained; the heights of three peaks, St. George, St. Patrick, and the 
Pyramid, were then found to be 9,326, 9,471, and 8,052 feet above the station, or 22,240, 
22,385, and 20,966, above the level of the sea. Here Colonel Hodgson, justly “ struck 
with seeing so near these peaks which viewed from the plains of Hindoosthan, inspire 
the mind with ideas of their grandeur,” exclaims ‘‘ how much more must they do so 
when the whole bulk, cased in snow from the base to the summit, at once fills the 
eye! It falls to the lot of few to contemplate so magnificent an object as a snow-clad 
peak rising to the height of upwards of a mile and a half, at the short horizontal distance 
of only two and three-quarters miles.” Beyond this, or at an elevation of 13,800 feet, 
they found the Ganges issuing from under a very low arch, from which great hoary 
icicles depended, at the foot of the great snow-bed, here about 300 feet in thickness. 
‘They still proceeded for some thousand paces up the inclined bed of snow, which seemed 
to fill up the hollow between the several peaks which Colonel Hodgson called Mount 
Moira and the Four Saints, geometrically ascertained to vary in height from 21,379 to 
22,798. On the N.E. of the sources of the Ganges are two peaks, Roodro Himala and 
Surga 
