of the Valley of the Setlej River. 271 



five villages, situated upon the south-western declivity of the 

 mountainous range. These villages vary in altitude, from 

 9,000 to 9,400 feet above the level of the sea. Rdl itself is 

 9,350 feet. It is the highest inhabited land without the Hi- 

 malaya. The crops are wheat, barley (H. hexastychon,) Sibe- 

 rian barley (H. casleste,) called by the mountaineers U'a, Poly- 

 gonum? (phapar) and pease: they just reach to 10,000 feet. 

 The wheat seldom ripens ; and, when the rains fall early in 

 June, most of the grains are cut green. 



The travellers proceed from R61 through a fine wood of oak, 

 yew, pine, rhododendron, and horse-chesnut, with some juni- 

 per, and long thin bambus, to Buclikalghat, just overtopping 

 the forest at the elevation of 11,800 feet. 



They passed by an extremely difficult and tiresome way, 

 amongst piles of loose stones, which seemed to have been but 

 lately precipitated from above, to Re'6ni, a halting-place for 

 travellers, on the bank of a rivulet, at an elevation of 11,750 

 feet. In the vicinity were stunted birches, dwarf oaks, pines, 

 and juniper, and two species of rhododendron ; one, as called 

 by the natives, Tdlsdr. Flowers abounded, such as thyme 

 and cowslips. The soil is a rich moist black turf, not unlike 

 peat. 



The Shdtul pass had not been traversed since the month of 

 September, 1820, when Mr James G. Gerard effected the pas- 

 sage with much difficulty and danger, and lost two of his ser- 

 vants, who were frozen to death at mid-day. It was attended 

 with less peril at this early season : Messrs Gerard were the 

 first persons who visited it in 1821. Having before travelled 

 the ordinary road through the pass, they determined to strike 

 directly across the ridge, which they accomplished. Its ele- 

 vation was found by barometric measurement to be 15,556 feet 

 above the sea, confirming a similar measurement in the pre- 

 ceding year, which made it but two feet less. 



The rocks were chiefly mica slate, and gneiss. In the as- 

 cent they had noticed a huge granitic rock, in the chilly re- 

 cess of which they rested ; and their route had led them in 

 some places over heaps of angular fragments of gneiss, gra- 

 nite, quartz, and felspar, jumbled together in wild disorder, 

 where every step was dangerous. 



