Mr. H. T. Colebrooke's Remarks on the Setlej River. 351 



arduous. They were detained three days at Shalpid (a resting-place for 

 travellers) by incessant rain ; on the fourth day their guides consented to 

 proceed. Many snow-beds were crossed ; and, about the height of 16,300 

 feet, continuous snow-beds commenced ; at first, a gentle acclivity, and 

 latterly a very steep slope, surpassing, in terror and difficulty of access, any 

 thing which the travellers had yet encountered. The acclivity was at an 

 angle of 37^°, of loose stones, gravel and snow, which the rain had soaked 

 through and mixed together, so as to make moving laborious, and all but 

 impracticable. The stones gave way at every step, so that it became neces- 

 sary to use hands as svell as feet. The travellers reached the crest of the 

 pass at noon, in a state of exhaustion and numbedness of hands and feet, 

 from continued exposure to snow and sleet, with a violent freezing wind. 



The dell leading to the pass is very much contracted ; and the ridges on 

 each side are almost bare. The rock is generally a sort of slaty gneiss, 

 sometimes in large masses, but more commonly tumbling in pieces, with 

 little soil and less vegetation. 



Here, as at Shdtul, Captain Gerard noticed the circumstance of the 

 mercury appearing quite pure [perfectly fluid?], when they left camp ; but, 

 at the pass (when used for filling a barometer) it had lost its lustre, and 

 adhered to the fingers and cup as if it were amalgamated. 



The descent from the pass, for half a mile, was at an angle of 33°, upon 

 gravel and snow, with a sharp-pointed rock occasionally projecting through 

 it. Some of the loaded people slid down this declivity at the greatest risk. 

 Travelling was rendered laborious on the easier slope of snow, from its 

 sinking one and a-half to two feet. The fissures were beginning to appear, 

 and the guides picked their steps with much caution, leaping over whatever 

 had the least appearance of a rent. The snow fell fast j and a piercing 

 wind blew with fury down the dell. 



The principal branch of the Nangalti has its source much further to the 

 west ; a rivulet joins it from the pass. The mountainous range having a 

 N.W. aspect, is very rugged ; and the snow (often of a reddish colour) 

 presents enormous banks of sixty or eighty feet thick, as shown by the part 

 towards the dell having fallen down where it cracked. This is always the 

 case on the precipitous sides of the vallies, because the ridges, for a con- 

 siderable way down, are too abrupt for the snow to rest upon them : it there- 

 fore accumulates in large quantities, where the inclination is more gentle ; 

 it then cracks, and tumi)les down by its own weight, during the rainy 



