502 JVbtes of a trip from Simla to the Spiti Valley. [No. 5, 



]y imposed on hitherto as to the price of flour, and that every Euro- 

 pean not a fool, in Ladak, insisted on having sixty seers of flour 

 for the rupee, a statement regarding which I had doubts, notwith- 

 standing the local knowledge of my informant. He informed me 

 that he was Lt. Melville, attached to the Grand Trigonometrical 

 Survey in Kashmir, and eventually accepted the loan of a small sum 

 of money, as his own funds were barely adequate to carry him into 

 Simla. On my return to Simla, however, I discovered that I had been 

 swindled, (alas for the frank Saxon physiognomy of my friend) and 

 Lt. Melville (verus), to whom I wrote, was able to give me some 

 particulars regarding the gentleman who had thus honoured him by 

 assuming his name. He turned out to be a man who had been 

 recently turned out of the Grand Trigonometrical Survey for disrepu- 

 table practices, and who also, I believe, so conducted himself in Simla 

 as to give the trades-people there a higher opinion of his talents and 

 impudence than of his honesty. To punish the European swindler, 

 however, who exercises his talents in the Upper Provinces is, in 

 the present state of the law and the practical difficulties and expense 

 attending a prosecution at the Presidency, one thousand miles away, 

 far from easy. 



3rd, Camp. — Northern foot of the Manirang pass, 15273* feet 

 (Sopana of the Maps.) The ascent of the pass is very steep and 

 extremely laborious, from the heaps of loose debris one is forced to 

 climb over. The labour of climbing over this sort of ground at this 

 height was so severe, that in one or two places I thought I should 

 have fainted from sheer exhaustion, and once or twice rocks and 

 mountains seemed to swim round, so that I was forced to throw my- 

 self on my back to avoid falling over the steep rocks I was at the 

 time ascending, the result of which would have been an abrupt termi- 

 nation to my journey and life. On gaining the snow bed near the 

 summit, the path was much easier, though the snow was rather slip- 

 pery, and there were a few crevasses to be avoided. The summit of 

 the pass is but a little under 19000 ft. (18889*) and the descent lies 

 over a glacier much finer and larger than that on the south side. Both 

 myself and servants all got severe headaches, but strange to say not till 

 we had effected a considerable descent from the top of the pass : they 

 remained all that evening, but left no traces the next morning. Spirits 

 1 believe only aggravate the headaches, and I contented myself after my 



