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



lines, to which the animals are one by one fastened by means of a 

 loop and button they carry on their necks, the goats and sheep being 

 tethered separately. It was pleasing to observe the docility of these 

 animals and the readiness with which they allowed themselves to be 

 tied up. Each of them, on being secured, lay down and was fast 

 asleep before a second had been well secured to the next place on the 

 rope, so that in a surprisingly short space the noise and animation 

 produced by the return of this large flock was exchanged for the 

 most perfect stillness. The encampment was protected from the 

 wind by the bags of borax piled into a low wall, and guarded by 

 several fine but savage mastiffs. By day-break the whole flock was 

 once more in motion with its freight towards Spiti. 



12th, Camp at the foot of the Parang pass, at 16,44S ft. — Cross the 

 Parilanghi river, and shortly afterwards ascend the camping ground, 

 a bleak bare valley without the smallest shrub on the bare rocks. 

 The coolies having brought up little or no fuel, all passed an uncom- 

 fortable night, a high wind often howling up the pass with occasion- 

 al sleet, and the only fuel procurable being a little dried ass's dung 

 scattered along the road. Another large flock of goats with borax 

 passed in the afternoon en route to Spiti and Kulu. 



13^, Gamp, east hank of the Para river, north of the pass, at 16,163 ft. 

 - — The ascent to the pass is steep but far from difficult ; a little snow 

 is met with in hollows and sheltered places, but the road is free of 

 snow to the summit. The crest of the pass is a rocky ridge of vertical 

 limestone strata, forming a gap between high snowy peaks on either 

 hand. From this rocky ridge one steps off on to a fine glacier, which 

 is seen filling up the valley beneath, and which is mainly augmented 

 by the gradual descent of lateral glaciers and ice from the high snowy 

 peaks to the west. Few crevasses exist in this glacier, and the de- 

 scent over it is gradual and easy, though there are some awkward bits 

 of road just after quitting it, where the ground is very steep and 

 the road creeps along the chasm that yawns between the mountain 

 side on one hand and the glacier on the other, and which is produced 

 by the melting of the glacier in contact with the dark warm rocks of 

 the valley. The summit of the pass I determined by a subsequent 

 observation to be 19,132, ft. which I believe to be very nearly correct, 

 though Cunningham makes it only 18,502 ft. This difference of 

 630 ft. is the more remarkable as three heights in the Spiti valley 



