1841.] to the sources of the Punjab rivers. 5 



birchen twig rope, having a span of 106 feet, and a height of forty 

 feet above the stream. We halted at Koksur, the first village in Lahul, 

 and the highest on the bank of the Chundra, at an elevation of 

 10,053 feet. There was not even a bush to be seen as far as the 

 eye could reach, although the vegetation around the village was rich 

 and luxuriant, the whole ground being covered with strawberries, 

 dwarf irises, hyacinths, and pinks ; there was also one primrose in blos- 

 som on the 8th of July. 



From Koksur we proceeded along the right bank of the Chundra for 

 five miles to the village of Tehling, where we saw on both sides of the 

 river a few poor withered looking yews ; snow was lying in all the 

 gorges and ravines ; and even in the bed of the main stream there were 

 large masses forty and fifty feet thick on each side, which had only re- 

 cently been cut through by the current and undermined. In two days 

 we reached the village of Gooroo Guntall, twenty miles below Koksur, 

 at the junction of the Chundra and Bhaga rivers, whose united streams 

 form the Chundra-Bhaga, or Chenab river, the Sandabal of Ptolemy 

 the geographer. There we halted as the birchen bridge over the 

 Bhaga river had been swept away ; and on the following morning we 

 ascended the left bank of the Bhaga for about four miles, and passing 

 through the large villages of Gwajun and Kardung, we reached a 

 wooden bridge, forty feet span and forty feet in height, by which we 

 crossed the stream, and then descended it for four miles to Tandee, the 

 chief village of Lahul, which is exactly opposite to Gooroo Guntall, the 

 village from which we had started in the morning. The only trees 

 about Tandee are yews and pollard willows. On the banks of the 

 Bhaga however there were pines ; and we found plenty of wild goose- 

 berries of which we made very good puddings : some of these gooseber- 

 ries that we bottled with snow water remained perfectly good after a 

 journey to Simla, where they were cooked and eaten. We saw some 

 yellow roses too on the banks of the Bhaga, and some columbine near 

 Tandee. The crops consist of buck-wheat, common wheat, and barley ; 

 of which buck-wheat is by far the most common. The crops frequently 

 fail either through the backwardness of the warm season, or through 

 the early setting in of the long winter ; indeed for three years before 

 our arrival at Tandee there had been no good crops of wheat or barley. 

 The natives however attributed this failure to the displeasure of Provi- 



