Mr. H. T. Colebrooite's Remarks on the Setlej River. 365 



two feet ; the former rushing with great fury and noise, the latter flowing 

 with a more gentle current. The elevation was found to be 10,200 feet 

 above the sea. 



A mile from Changrezhing, proceeding towards the river, they got among 

 the crags and waterworn passages, whence it was no easy matter to ex- 

 tricate themselves. Capt. G. remarks, that they were evidently on the 

 former bank of the river : the whole bank was a concreted rubble, hardened 

 by the air on the retiring of the waters. After descending a series of dif- 

 ficult steps or ledges, each seeming to have once been the bank of the 

 river, they arrived at its bed. The distance from Changrezhing was three 

 miles and a half. 



They proceeded by the C/(OW^Z»« pass (11,900 feet above the sea), and 

 crossing the Spiti by a good bridge of three fir trees planked over, to 

 Sh'idlkhar, where there is a fort in a commanding situation, on the brink of 

 the channel. The walls are of loose stones and unburnt bricks, with houses 

 all around the inside. It is in the parallel of 32° N. lat. The river is here 

 10,000 feet above the sea. The climate resembles that of Chdngo. The 

 grain crops are the same ; and apricots are plentiful, and of very superior 

 flavour. 



Ldri, the first village in Spitl, a dependency of Ldddk, is distant about 

 eleven miles to the N. W. Messrs. Gerard wished to visit it, but the Spiti 

 intervened, and was then unfordable, and there are no bridges. For the 

 same reason they could not see the hot wells between the Spiti and Zayig- 

 chdm, four miles north of Sh'idlkhar. They are in great repute in this 

 quarter, and diseased people resort thither from long distances, either to 

 bathe in them, or drink the waters. 



The travellers proceeded along the glen of the Spiti, to Lakh, which is 

 12,900 feet above the sea, whence they descended into the bed of the 

 Yiilang river, a middling sized stream, rising among perpetual snow in the 

 west. It is increased by rivulets from either side ; and above the ford, a 

 stream gushes from the brow of the mountain, and is precipitated into it in 

 a transparent cascade. Hence the angle of ascent was 34°, rising 2,000 feet 

 perpendicular, in a distance of one mile, over hard gravel. DiflJculty aod 

 danger in a thousand forms attend the traveller's progress : when he clings 

 to the bank, he frequently brings away a piece of it. In some places there 

 are many large stones amongst the gravel, which it requires much caution 

 to avoid setting in motion, for one displaces others, so that sometimes 



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