49S Notes of a trip from Simla to the Spiti Valley. [No. 5, 



At this village I got the skin of the lesser flying squirrel, the fur 

 of which is ueautifully soft ; the larger species I have shot at dusk 

 in my own compound in Simla, and both appear pretty generally 

 diffused and not rare, though from their crepuscular habits they are 

 not often seen. 



2Qth, Qaugera, 11294 ft.* — This is a mere camping ground, about 

 500 feet below the upper limit of trees. Wild thyme and other 

 flowers abounded and a species of potentilla, with thicker and more 

 downy leaves than that which grows at a lower elevation. Many of 

 the plants which occur at high elevation are possessed of an aroma- 

 tic fragrance and leaves furnished with down, as though to meet the 

 increased rigour of the climate. 



27th, Ziipe. — On quitting camp, the road immediately commences to 

 ascend, and crosses a pass of some 14000 feet, to which no name is given 

 in the map. Wild flowers were growing in great profusion near the 

 summit among the rocks, and some way down on the other side birch- 

 es and rhododendrons. Lipe is situated on the northern bank of a 

 considerable stream, which is crossed by means of a wooden bridge. 

 A little above Lipe vast beds of river sands and shingles, some 250 

 feet thick, are seen reposing on the rocky slopes of the gorge, some 

 600 feet above the present level of the river ; and much of the culti- 

 vated land below the village is on a river terrace which has been 

 abandoned by the stream during a comparatively recent period, the 

 river having worn for itself a deep channel, almost a rapid, on the 

 opposite side. Close to the river are extensive vineyards, but the 

 present year has been unfavorable for grapes, especially about Chini 

 where the vines have almost entirely failed. About Lipe there was 

 better promise of fruit, but it was too early in the season when I was 

 there, to get any. 



28th, Tabang, 11755 ft.*-— A very short march, the road rising con- 

 siderably from Lipe and crossing a low pass, near the summit of which 

 I noticed small rhubarb plants among the furze covering the hill side, 

 and also a few straggling cypresses, which certainly ill-deserved the 

 poetic epithet of Aerial or lofty cypress,* being little else than mere 

 bushes. The camping ground is a mere depression in the bleak hill 

 side, above the village. The water of a spring close by was 44°. Not- 



* "Non sine nutanti platano, lentaque sorore 



Flaunnafei Phaethontis et aeria cujpressu." Catullus Nup. Pel. et Thet, 



