On the Glaciers of the Himalaya. Ill 



west of the valley, probably to a height of 20,000 feet above 

 the sea, are fine objects in themselves, and the frozen snow on 

 their summits shines gloriously in the sun ; but they ai^e not 

 sufficient to prevent the general impression from the scene 

 being one of disagreeable monotony, and of desolation com- 

 plete indeed, but without sublimity. 



The glacier is formed by the meeting of two ice- streams, 

 from gorges, one coming from the north-west and the other 

 neai'ly from the east, which meet about two miles above the 

 source of the river. 



The feeder from the north-west is larger than that from 

 the east, and its surface is at a considerably higher level for 

 some hundred yards below their first junction. It descends 

 with a great inclination, entirely filling the gorge down which 

 it comes, in what Professor Forbes aptly terms a cascade of 

 ice. It assumes the general appearance of a confused mass 

 of irregular steps, which are again broken up transversely 

 into peaks of every shape. 



The feeder from the east is formed by the union of two 

 smaller glaciers, one coming from the north-east, the other 

 from the south-east : the latter is the larger of the two, and 

 descends in ice-cliffs to some little distance below the rocky 

 point which intersected my view of its upper parts. The 

 north-east tributary is not so steep, its surface, as far as I 

 could see, being continuous, excepting immediately at its 

 union with the other, where it seems to be a good deal broken 

 up. I did not go to any of these glaciers, and describe them 

 as they appeared from the upper parts of the united glacier. 

 Another small tributary glacier also falls into the main one 

 from the north-west. Its inclination is very great, but it 

 perfectly maintains its continuity of structure to the bottom. 

 The lateral moraine of the west side of the northern branch 

 of the glacier shews itself as a black band along the edge 

 of the ice, which, in other pai*ts of the fall, is quite white. 

 The moraine is small at one point ; at another, it very rapidly 

 increases, and in its lower parts is a chaos of desolation, such 

 as I never saw before. This great addition to the size of the 

 moraine is owing to the quantity of debris brought down by 

 the small glacier, over the lower parts of which stones were 



