JOURNEY TO SIRITs^AGUR. 345 



The country to the nortlnvaid of Sirinagtn^ when 

 viewed from one of the highest ridges, above the 

 valley, discovers five or six ranges or broken chains 

 ot" hills rising with a gradation above each other. 

 The last or most elevated, reaches, to appearance, 

 about halfway up from the base of the stupendous 

 Hhmiiaya, whose snowy summits terminate the view 

 from hence. None of the intermediate ranges ex- 

 hibit the smallest appearance of snow; and though, 

 in the winter season, those nearest to the high ridges 

 may receive partial falls of it, yet no part remains 

 long upon their surfaces. 



With the inclination to pay all possible deference 

 -and submission to the accuracy and judgment of Mr. 

 Danjel, who visited this capital in 1789, yet I must 

 here notice a remark by Mr. Rennell in his last 

 valuable memoir ofa map oi Hindustan, given upon the 

 authority of the former. The reader is there induced 

 to conclude that a part of the base of the snowy- 

 mountains, is at a very inconsiderable distance from 

 the valley of Sirinagur. 



Mr. Daniel acknowledges, however, he trusted 

 to the reports of the natives, who make the distance 

 fourteen or fifteen geographic miles. But it is cer- 

 tainly much greater, and, I believe, cannot be less 

 than eighty English miles. 



I have observed elsewhere that in tracing the 

 river Aluhmndra from below upwards, through the 

 valley o^ Sirinagur, the course is eastern ; and I find, 

 as far as the information of the nativ^es can ])e trusted, 

 that in a distance of about three days journey, it 

 takes a more northerly direction, near a place called 

 Roodreepraag, where it is joined by a river about 

 half its size, called Kalkt Gonga, the source of 

 which is in the mountains near Kidaar-nauth to the 

 north : and its principal branch from a place called 

 Sindoo Sogur, issuing out of the rockb. Troni Hood- 

 reepraag jthe course is continued about N. E. and 



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