176 DR. THOMSON'S MISSION TO THIBET. 
feet close to the foot of the lofty range of mountains which separated 
me from the Chenab. The next day I crossed the pass, the height of 
which I found to be 14,695 feet. On the early part of the ascent I 
obtained many beautiful and interesting plants, but nothing I believe 
which had not previously been found elsewhere at similar elevations. 
Throughout the early part of the ascent, snow only occurred in patches, 
but from about 12,000 feet it was continuous, except where a few 
. rocky pinnacles and ridges afforded no room for it to lie. On these 
small rocky fatches, surrounded on all sides by fields of snow, many 
plants occurred in flower. Here I found a lovely Primrose (I think P. 
purpurea, Royle), a purple Sibbaldia, a little Pedicularis, Picrorhiza 
Kurrooa ; and even at the top, which, consisting of a mass of rugged 
rocks, was free from snow, I observed a little yellow Draba and a very 
minute Primula (P. minutissima) growing in the crevices in great 
abundance. From the range of mountains which I had now crossed 
the Chenab river was only about ten miles distant, and beyond lay the 
grand snowy range which still separated me from Thibet. To reach 
the pass by which I intended to traverse these mountains, after crossing 
the Chenab, I made two marches along its course, and on the third at 
a place ealled Chatargarh, turned again to the north, ascending a valley 
watered by a considerable stream. The bed of the Chenab was ele- 
vated about 7,000 feet, and the valley was extremely mountainous, 
with beautiful forest, and the surrounding mountains being all tipped 
with snow, the scenery was extremely fine. As I had anticipated from 
the height of the snowy range which separated the valley from the 
lower Himalaya, I found the vegetation to resemble closely that of 
. Kunawar, ‘The trees were principally Pine, Deodar and Pinus Gerar- 
diana being most abundant, with, in the lower and more shady forests, 
Pavia, Corylus, Betula, species of Acer, &c. An Oak, which I have 
never before seen but ia Kunawar, was common, also the Fother- 
gilla, which, with one or two other Kashmir plants not met with in 
Kunawar, proves the strong connection which exists in the vegeta- 
tion of all these snow-surrounded valleys, and that the ehange which 
takes place is not sudden but gradual as one advances from east to 
west. It would be vain to attempt to enumerate the species which 
I collected in this beautiful valley. The vegetation was very luxuriant ; 
and though many of the species were the same as those which I had 
