76 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



to 1 For a few miles it had once been a cut road, but 

 years and grief had made it worse than the ordinary 

 native paths. At some places it was impassable even 

 for hill ponies, and to be carried in a dandy over 

 a considerable part of it was out of the question. But 

 the aggravation thus caused was more than compen- 

 sated for by the magnificent view of snowy peaks which 

 soon appeared in front, and which, though they be- 

 longed to the Kailas group, were more striking than 

 the Kailas as it appears from Chini or Pangay. Those 

 enormous masses of snow and ice rose into the clouds 

 above us to such a height, and apparently so near, that 

 it seemed as if their fall would overwhelm the whole 

 Sutlej valley in our neighbourhood, and they suggested 

 that I was entering into the wildest and sublimest 

 region of the earth. These peaks had the appearance 

 of being on our side of the Sutlej, but they lie be- 

 tween that river and Chinese Tartary, in the bend 

 which it makes when it turns north at Buspa ; they 

 are in the almost habitationless district of Morang, 

 and are all over 20,000 feet high. My coolies called 

 them the Shurang peaks ; and it is well worth while 

 for all visitors to Pangay to go up a few miles from 

 that place in order to get a glimpse of the terrific Al- 

 pine sublimity which is thus disclosed, and which has 

 all the more effect as it is seen ere vegetation ceases, 

 and through the branches of splendid and beautiful 

 trees. 



At Earang, which made a half -day's journey, the 



