36 ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BOTANY OF 
rising by steps to near seven hundred feet higher, in fields enclosed by hedges of goose- 
berry and barberry, with Juniper and Tartaric furze, extending above thirteen thousand 
feet. The seasons are similar to those of northern latitudes, grain being sown in March 
and April, and reaped in August and September. Snow generally falls towards the end 
of October: it seldom exceeds two feet in depth, but does not leave the ground for near 
six months.’ Want of moisture in the air must prevent its earlier descent, as the tem- 
perature at sunrise in October is seldom above 20°; in August it was 75° at noon, 
and never below 52°. At Chango, elevated ten thousand feet, the temperature rises to 
80° in the same month ; the seasons are a month earlier, and more rain falls in April and 
May. The crops, besides those noticed at Nako, consist of ogal (Polygonum emar- 
ginatum), millet, peas, and beans. At Shalkur, the most northern part of Hungarung, 
as well as at Lari and Dunkur in the adjoining province of Ludak, houses are built 
of unburnt brick, these being sufficient to resist the weather, as very little rain falls, 
and that only in May and June. From this position, all the mountains to the 
northward have a rounded outline, with but little snow resting on them in the summer 
months; while the irregular and snowy peaks of the Himalaya are all seen to the 
southward. 3 
On the eastern boundaries of Kunawur lies that part of Chinese Tartary which is 
under the authority of the Grand Lama of Lahasa; Shipkee is the first village, elevated 
ten thousand five hundred feet. The mountains still further to the eastward are of a 
rounded form, with a gentle slope, of inferior elevation, and said to be of a gravelly 
structure. On the southern bank of the Sutlej they rise from the water’s-edge up to 
eighteen or nineteen thousand feet, without forests or even a bush, clothed with a 
withered and russet vegetation, and bare of snow; a hedge of gooseberry and a row. of 
willows are noticed as remarkable. Chukors and Monals (Perdix Chukor and Lopho- 
phurus Impeyanus) were seen while the thermometer in October stood at 33°. Shirang 
Mountain, beyond Shipkee, on the road to Garoo, exceeds eighteen thousand three 
hundred feet in elevation, yet only one strip of snow could be seen. In a late 
journey through the north-eastern parts of Kunawur, Dr. Gerard writes that he ‘‘ came 
upon a village at a height of fourteen thousand seven hundred feet. It was the middle 
of October, and the thermometer on two mornings was 17°, yet the sun’s rays were 
oppressive, and all the streams and lakes, which were sheeted with ice during the 
night, were free and running by two o'clock. The finest crops of barley are reared 
here, and to irrigation and solar heat are the people indebted for a crop. The barometer 
gave for the highest field fourteen thousand nine hundred feet of elevation; ‘‘ and this,” 
Dr. Gerard adds, ‘“ verifies the inferences on the limit of cultivation in the upper 
course of the Sutlej, and I think it quite probable that crops may vegetate at sixteen 
and seventeen thousand feet. The Yaks and Shawl goats seemed finer than at any 
other spot within my observation.” Further on he continues: ‘“ On the north-eastern 
frontier of Kunawur, close to the stone bridge (near Changrezing), I attained a height 
of more than twenty thousand feet, without crossing snow, the barometer shewing 
14-320, 
