68 Captain Webb's Journey in Thibet . 



top expect permission to trade at any mart on our side the 

 frontier. 



This arrangement would answer the purpose, but it seems 

 very possible, that the Viceroy may not feel authorized to con- 

 sent to such a measure, without previously referring the ques- 

 tion to Pekin ; and there I fear the event is, to say the least, 

 doubtful. 



Among the few " organic remains" which I collected, were 

 some fossil bones : part of these were given to Mr. Ricketts, 

 and a portion to Mr. Colebrooke. The cognoscenti in Calcutta 

 seem to consider them as belonging to the human species ; and 

 as I observe that M. Cuvier, in his essay, stoutly denies that 

 any such have been yet discovered, it will be gratifying to the 

 curiosity of geologists, should the fact be so established *. 



I have already written such a long letter, and the time I can 

 allot for finishing it is so small, that I must omit the descrip- 

 tion of the pass into Tartary, with which I purposed concluding 

 this epistle ; and limit myself to mentioning, that the crest of 

 the Ghat, by a mean of four barometers with me, compared 

 with correspondent observations by Colonel Hardwicke and Mr. 

 A. Colvin, give 16.895 feet for its altitude. 



The observed angle of depression to the Sutluj River from 

 the same point, is only 1° 28' 10"; and consequently the lowest 

 ■part of the valley of the Sutluj River, (the first plateau of Tartary) 

 is about 14.924 feet. The distance to the part of the river, 

 which I observed, is 15^ B. M. by Mr. Moorcroft's map ; and 

 as the distance in that map, which I actually travelled over, 

 appeared to me tolerably correct, or at least agreed tolerably 

 well with my measurement, I conclude that there is still less 

 chance of their being erroneous, where the route led over com 

 paratively level ground. 



There was not a vestige of snow on the ghat, nor on a shoulder 

 of the hill, which rises some 300 feet above the pass on the left 

 (west) hand. So far from the plateau being buried under perp- 



* They are not human ; but the remains of animals belonging to some 

 species of deer, or a kindred genus. H. T. C 



