1862.] Journal of 'a trip in the Sikhim Himalaya. 471 



the water's edge, was seen the noisy, foaming Ratong. On our left a 

 dark range of bare, bold and craggy mountains 16,000 or 17,000 feet 

 high, capped with snow, having the appearance of basaltic formation, 

 but formed of gneiss mixed with hornblende and syenite, rose abrupt- 

 ly. We were the first European travellers to gaze upon this truly 

 grand scene. Any one desirous of witnessing grandeur of scenery 

 should visit Alutong. However toilsome and comparatively uninter- 

 esting he may find the intermediate travelling as far as Jongli, he 

 will be well repaid by the wild scenery of this locality. 



Another cold night, and clear, crisp morning ; thermometer at 

 sunrise 5|° ; and at sunset, the valley having been in the shade since 

 4 P. M., it stood at 21° . At 10 o'clock we all started to explore the 

 morains. We proceeded at times along the bed and banks of the 

 river, at others over rough, stony ground, deeply intersected by small 

 running streams coming from the snow. The main stream flows gent- 

 ly over a gravel bed of moderate incline. The valley is nearly a mile 

 broad, and covered with dwarf rhododendron and grass wherever soil 

 occurs. 



A little before reaching the morain we passed a series of Mendongs, 

 having numerous slabs of well carved prayers and images of the 

 gods in the side walls, extending the entire length. These slabs of 

 chlorite slate are carved by Llamas from the Sikkim monasteries 

 who periodically visit this place on pilgrimage during the rains. 



Having ascended the immense mass of debris forming the morain, 

 probably to an elevation of 15,000 feet, we found ourselves, to our 

 great surprise, standing on the top of a stupendous glacier. This huge 

 mass of ice and debris descending from the Pundeem mountain ex- 

 tends nearly across the valley, where it is met by, and abuts upon 

 another glacier, equally vast in its dimensions, and formed at the 

 base of the snow-clad mountains on the other, or western side of the 

 valley, the two together forming a complete barrier across the valley 

 and choking it up to the height of a thousand feet or more. The 

 morain forms the retaining wall to this mass of moving ice and 

 debris, and is composed of rounded and angular blocks of highly con- 

 torted gneiss, intermixed with pieces of syenite, micaceous schist, 

 coarse granite, quartz with tourmaline crystals, white and pink 

 quartz, often containing veins of crystalized felspar and coarse 

 gravel and debris. Towards the summit the fragments were all 



