504 Notes of a trip from Simla to tlie Spiti Valley. [No. 5, 



day was intense, and inside a tent the thermometer rose to over 100°. 

 The temperature of the air may he taken at however ahout 85° at 

 midday, sinking to 45° at sunrise, which gives a daily range of from 40 

 to 50 degrees. The whole scene is striking and peculiar and totally 

 unlike anything met with in Cis-Himalayan countries ; the hare 

 and precipitous hills of a peculiar and uniform yellow colour, their 

 sharply defined and jagged outline, the total absence of trees, save a 

 few poplars planted about the village, amidst rich crops of wheat and 

 barley, the square flat-topped houses, with their tiny windows, and 

 stores of furze for winter fuel accumulated on the roofs, the yaks and 

 shawl goats grazing among the rocks, and lastly the inhabitants them- 

 selves, genuine Tartars in physiognomy, and with their nationality 

 stamped on every particular of their figure, dress or speech, combine 

 to form a complete contrast with the country and people on the op- 

 posite side of the pass. 



Pitched tents in a rather confined spot a little above the village, 

 and was soon surrounded by an enquiring group of the inhabitants. 

 Unfortunately I had no interpreter or servant who understood the 

 language sufficiently to carry on a conversation, a want which I 

 severely felt, as it precluding my getting information which I was 

 often anxious to obtain. 



Both men and women dress in loose coats and trousers of a coarse 

 woollen cloth and puttoes or boots of untanned leather. These 

 boots are very warm and substantial articles, composed of a sole of 

 leather which is turned up all round the foot and stitched to a thick 

 woollen stocking or Wo-ins^ which is tied above the knee. Though 

 rather clumsy in appearance, these boots afford perfect protection 

 against cold and from injury from rough ground or ice ; and after a 

 march a cooly may often be seen with a needle and thread, putting 

 a few stitches into a weak place in his boots, which often exhibit 

 signs of having had half a dozen soles added from time to time one 

 over the other. The men wear either conical caps, or ones much the 

 shape of a comfortable travelling cap, and their hair in a pigtail, except 

 the Lamas or priests who are closely cropped. The women wear 

 their hair braided behind in numerous small plaits, often twenty or 

 upwards in number, sometimes tied loosely together at their ends, 

 and sometimes kept equidistant by having their ends passed through 

 a horizontal ribbon half way down the back, the plaits then recalling 



