1822.] the Sources of the Rivers Ganges and Jumna.” 49 
Finding that the head of the river must be more distant than 
we expected, we sent back to Gangotri for a small tent. 
High mural precipices rising immediately from the river to the 
left: snowy peaks to the night, their summits about 6000 feet 
above us. 
Cross the river at some falls. We leaped from rock to rock 
with some difficulty. Present general line of snow about 200 
feet above us. To the right, the face of the mountain has 
slipped. 
Bhojpatra (i. e. birch) jungle to the right with some pines, 
but small and stunted. Great mural precipices to the left. 
Begin to pass a great snow bed from under which the river falls 
in a cascade. Heavy slips of the mountain to the right. 
Ascend a very steep mass of snow, which covers the river; it 
appears to be 300 feet thick. 
Cross a rill. To the right above us are sharp snowy peaks 
6000 or 7000 feet high ; at their bases is some soil and loose 
stones, in which birch and small firs grow. . 
Up the rocky bed of the river, and here ascend a very darge 
snow bed, which reaches from the top of the peaks to the right 
of the river, and conceals it: the river bed here more expanded. 
The feet of the mountains to the right not so steep as hitherto. 
To the left are precipices. Saw some musk deer among the 
rocks. From the top of the snow bed, a noble snowy peak (St. 
George) appears. 
Above the left bank of the river, and by the side of the snow 
bed, are some birch trees and small long leaved firs, but no more 
cedars. This being the only convenient or safe place we could 
see, we halted here. The river is perceptibly diminished in bulk 
already, and we hope that to morrow we may see its head. The 
march to day was most toilsome, and rough through the loose 
fragments of rock which daily fall at this season from the peaks 
on either side ‘to the river, in the afternoon when the sun melts 
the snow. Travellers should contrive to gain a safe place by 
noon, or they may be dashed to pieces. 
It was very cold at this place, and froze all night, but we had 
plenty of fire wood from the bhojpatra trees. The soil was 
spongy, and full of rocks. The silence of the night was several 
times broken by the noise of the falling of distant avalanches. 
' By the barometer, it appeared we were 11,160 feet above the 
sea. Water boiled at 193° of Fahrenheit. 
A little tent, which one man carries on his back, came to us; 
but in this trip, we ate and slept on the ground, and were well 
pleased to have got so farbeyond Gangotri, hitherto the boundary 
of research on the Ganges. Latitude observed, 30° 58’ 59”. 
‘The place we adie the night on is elevated above the left 
te of the stream, being a sort of bank formed by the ruins 
of fallen peaks ; but as the falls are not recent, nor the slope so 
ue as in most places, the birch trees and various sorts of small 
ew Series, VOL, 1Y. E 
