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XXI. On the Valley of the Setlej River, in the Him.ilaya Moun- 

 tains, from the Journal of Captain A. Gerard, ivith Remarks hy Henry 

 Thomas Colebrooke, Esq., Dir. R.A.S. 



Read December 3, 1825. 



Capt. a. Gerard, from whose letters on a survey of the middle valley 

 of the Setlej, in the year 1818, a brief sketcli of the geology of that part 

 of the Himalaya was prepared, which has been inserted in the Geological 

 Transactions (1st vol , New Series), has since continued to explore the 

 same interesting portion of the great Indian chain of mountains. A short 

 narrative of a visit to the same quarter, in 1820, was communicated to the 

 Royal Society of Edinburgh, and is published in the 10th volume of the 

 Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, (page 295.) In the subsequent year (1821) 

 Capt. A. Gerard, with his brother, Mr. J. G. Gerard, more fully explored 

 the same valley, to complete a geographical survey of it. Their diary, 

 and the geological specimens collected by them, have, at their request, 

 been fireely communicated to me by the East-India Company, with the 

 liberal permission of retaining a duplicate set of the specimens. This I 

 accordingly have had the satisfaction of presenting to the Geological 

 Society. But, as the diary contains particulars unconnected with geology, 

 yet not devoid of interest in a more general view, I now offer to the notice 

 of the Royal Asiatic Society a summary of it, interspersed with remarks, 

 and including extracts of the more important passages. 



The diary commences on the 6th of June 1821, at Rol, near the foot 

 of the Shdtul pass, where the previous survey of the same tract in 1818 

 terminated. R61 is a small district in Chudrd, one of the larger divisions 

 of Basehar. It contains five villages, situated upon the south-western 

 declivity of the mountainous range. These villages vary in altitude, from 

 9,000 to 9,4.00 feet above the level of the sea. R61 itself is 9,350 feet. It 

 is the highest inhabited land without the Himalaya. The crops are wheat, 

 barley (H. hexastychon), Siberian barley (H. caeleste), called by the 

 mountaineers U'ii, Polygonum ? (phapar) and pease : they just reach to 



