On the Glaciers of the Himalaya. 121 



was stuck, as it were, with rock and rubbish, in such a man- 

 ner, as that the stones and large pieces of rock are supported 

 in the snow, and sink as it sinks ; as they are at such a dis- 

 tance from the peaks as to preclude the idea that they could 

 have rolled down to their present places except their sharp 

 points had been covered, it appears most likely" that they 

 came down like snowballs with avalanches. " It is not easy to 

 account for the deep rents which intersect this snow-bed, with- 

 out supposing it to be full of hollow places." The source of 

 the Ganges is stated by Captain Hodgson to be 12,914 feet 

 above the sea. 



The next is an extract fi'om a journal of Lieutenant Weller, 

 printed as a note to a journal of Captain Manson, {.Journal 

 of the Asiatic Society, No. 132.) 



" I went to see the source of the Goree River, about a mile 

 north-west from Milum. The river comes out in a small but 

 impetuous stream, at the foot of apparently a mass of dirt 

 and gravel some 300 feet high, shaped like a half-moon. This 

 is in reality a mass of dark coloured ice (bottle-green colour), 

 extending westward to a great distance, and covered with 

 stones and fragments of rock, which, in fact, form a succes- 

 sion of small hills. I went along this scene of desolation for 

 a long space, but could not nearly reach the end. Here and 

 there were circular and irregularly shaped craters (as it 

 were), from 50 to 500 feet in diameter at top, and some of 

 them 150 feet deep ; the ice was frequently visible on the 

 sides, and at the bottom was a dirty sea-green coloured pool of 

 water, apparently very deep. The bases of the hills on either 

 side, and fi-cquently far up their faces, are one succession of 

 landslips ; but, from their distance, I do not believe it pos- 

 sible that the debris in the centre of the snow-bed valley can 

 have fallen there from the side hills." Lieutenant Weller 

 also says of the same glacier in his journal, published in the 

 Journal of the Asiatic Society, No. 134 : — " The mass of desola- 

 tion, as described at the source of the Goree, continues thus far 

 up, that is, about four miles, and how much farther no one will 

 or can tell me. Tlie fissures hereabouts are narrow, instead 

 of being crater-like, and the ice, when visible, is more nearly 

 the colour of snow. On the opposite (south) side, luige ac- 



