Physical Geography of the Hiinalayah Mountains. 281 



Gneiss, of which the foliated structure is chiefly observable in 

 the large or weathered masses, having black mica, and a 

 porphyritic appearance from longitudinally imbedded masses 

 of Feldspar of a dirty white. An alternate flux and reflux 

 of the waste of milky vapour, constantly going on between 

 the northerly and southerly face through the gorge of the 

 psss, at certain seasons, evinces the striking effects which 

 these elevated summits must necessai'ily produce on the me- 

 teorology of the sultry and arid plains to which they adjoin. 



. Where the Sutluj emerges from behind this range, and 

 washes its base at Wangtoo, its bed is formed in a small 

 grained, compact, grey granite, smoothed by the water's at- 

 trition ; but from which, (owing to its durability,) no speci- 

 men could be broken by any common means ; in this are to 

 be seen occasionally large veins indissolubly united with the 

 rock itself, in which all the granitic ingredients are separately 

 crystallized, — the feldspar, the chief ingredient, of a snowy 

 white, — the mica in large separate flakes, quartz, and occa- 

 sionally Schorl in smaller quantity, these may be seen to pass 

 through the superincumbent black micaceous schistus, without, 

 however, seeming to produce either derangement of position, 

 or altered structure. 



I have observed horizontal sandstone stratification upon the 

 face of this range to an elevation of between 7500 and 8500 feet. 



The little flat (small compared to the surrounding moun- 

 tainous country) where the Jumna leaves the main range 

 round about the village of Kursalee, from the depth of its al- 

 luvial soil, and the narrow pass at the lower extremity, sur- 

 rounded with horizontal strata, bears the appearance, often 

 remarked, of having been a lake which had burst a boundary, 

 within which, for a time, it had been contained. 



The chains proceeding in south-westerly directions from 

 the main range, on the extremities of which the minerals of 

 the parallel ranges are superincumbent, are chiefly composed 

 of gneiss, mica, and clay-slate, often seemingly graduating 

 into each other. 



The mountain groupe of the Choor, about 12,000 feet 

 above the level of the sea, does not bear- snow during the 

 whok year, although snow may almost always be found 

 throughout the year in some of its sheltered chasms. The 



