392 Scientific Intelligence.^— Geography. 



17°, without a glimpse of the sun to warm them. The coolee 

 could not overcome the pressure of the fatigue, cold and sick- 

 ness, and he perished on the snow. Mr Gerard's mussalchee 

 also perished ; he was speaking, and even laughing, a few mi- 

 nutes before he became a corpse, and breathed his last like a 

 person going asleep. — Mr Gerard's failure in reaching Leh 

 principally arose from the jealousy of the government, which 

 stopped him on the threshold of the inhabited country, where 

 the wuzeer had, in anticipation of his arrival, crossed the inter- 

 vening ridge. Our traveller found him at an elevation of 

 16,000 feet, surrounded by Tartars in black tents, horses, and 

 dogs ; while upon the elevated acclivities of the neighbouring 

 mountains were herds of yaks and shawl goats, all in the luxu- 

 riance of life, in a region which tlieorists had placed far within 

 the domains of eternal snow. The wuzeer and himself were 

 soon upon friendly terms with each other, drank tea, ate beef, 

 and smoked. His official errand had not apparently warped his 

 private feelings; yet, though he evinced neither jealousy nor 

 rigour, he seemed impatient to get the traveller fairly out of 

 his sight. He accepted of many things presented to him, and 

 was very anxious to have a musical snuff-box, a toy which Mr 

 Gerard unfortunately had not provided himself with, not con- 

 ceiving that such an article could have been even heard of, 

 much less valued, in these wilds. During the nights the cold 

 was intense, the thermometer, the day previous to the meeting 

 with the wuzeer, standing at sunrise at 13 1°. On crossing the 

 Lartche-Long range, the next after Paralassa, Mr Gerard found 

 some shells at a positive height beyond 16,500 feet. The table- 

 land of Rodpshoo offered few objects of scientific research, except 

 its physical configuration and stupendous altitude ; the only in- 

 habitants being pastoral tribes, who live in black tents amongst 

 the valleys, which are here upon a medium level of 16,000 feet. 

 The whole aspect of the country was mountainous, and no ex- 

 panse of level was visible, except that of the lakes, the soil un- 

 dulating in heaps as far as he could see, till bounded by a 

 snowy chain, which, he concluded, defines the declension of the 

 streams towards tlie Indus. On the 20th September he lost his 

 way upon the shore of a salt lake, and passed the night in a sheep 

 fold, without any sort of shelter or food. " Next morning (he 



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