Mr. H. T. Colebrooke's Remarks on the Setlej River. 361 



so steep, and the fracture so fresh, as to give it the appearance of having 

 been recently broken. 



Several temporary huts, perched high among the crags across the river, 

 are the summer residence of the hunters of H«?;^o, who roam among the 

 rocks in quest of deer. 



Khdb, a village of but two houses, a mile from Namgia, is immediately 

 opposite the junction of the Li or Spiti river, one of the largest tributaries 

 of the Setlej, having its source in Ladak. The cheeks of the gulph (solid 

 granitej seem perfectly mural for many hundred feet ; one of the arms of 

 the Pargeul mountain limits the left side of the channel of the Spiti. The 

 contrast between the two streams is striking : the Spiti issues from its al- 

 most subterraneous concealment in a calm blue deep bod}^ to meet the 

 Setlej, which is an absolute torrent, thundering over the stones in deafening 

 clamour. 



Namgia, containing eight houses, is the last or most eastern village in 

 Basehar .- the liouses are built of granite, but their structure ill accords 

 with tiie durability of the materials. The want of forests, to supply the 

 timber necessary to give union to the walls, is the source of the bad work- 

 manship : the granite blocks resist the mountaineer's rude implements. 



The mountains on every hand are of stupendous height. Those imme- 

 diately at the back of the village exclude the sun till eight o'clock ; and 

 the consequent deficiency of solar heat retards the ripening of the crops. 

 They were here very backward : harvest was yet a month distant. 



It liad been determined to renew an attempt of penetrating eastward, 

 beyond the boundary of British influence, into the upper valley of the 

 Setlej. Accordingly they marched to Sfiipki, in Chinese Tartary, by the 

 Piming pass (13,518 feet), the boundary between Basehar and Chinese 

 Tartary. There could scarcely be a better defined limit : in front the face 

 of the country is intirely changed ; eastward, as far as the eye can see, 

 gravelly mountains of a very gentle slope succeed one another. No rugged 

 cliffs rise to view, but a bare expanse of elevated land, without snow, and 

 in appearance like a Scotch heath. .Just beyond the Setlej, the mighty 

 Pargeul, an immense mass, rises to 13,500 feet above the bed of the river, 

 more than 21,000 above the sea. To the east of it, in the same granitic 

 range, are several sharp pinnacles, nearly as high, being more tiian 20,000 

 feet above the sea: on the S.W., at the back of the town o? Shipki, is an 



