4 Journal of Lieut. A. Broome and Lieut. Cunningham [No. 109. 



bank of the river, which were visited by Moorcroft, who however does 

 not mention their temperature. In the morning we continued our 

 journey, and after passing through a forest of noble cedars we reached 

 the village of Booruwa. There the scenery was very picturesque. On 

 the left and to the front were snowy peaks ; but to the right there 

 were steep cliffs of gneiss, resembling " castellated parapets," as Moor- 

 croft described them twenty years ago. At two miles beyond this we 

 passed Kothee, the last village in the vale of the Beeas river, and 

 proceeded to a very pretty level spot of ground called Ralha, surround 

 ed by high cliffs, and steep green slopes, and where the Beeas was so 

 narrow that one might have jumped across it. In the morning we 

 made a laborious ascent of two miles by an irregular flight of steps, 

 built about 25 or 30 years ago by a Brahmin, who had charge of 

 the custom house opposite the village of Koshee. The road was then 

 tolerably level for about a mile ; after which it continued ascending 

 for two miles, crossing all the ravines on hard snow beds, which 

 even then, 7th of July, had not melted, until we reached the head 

 of the Pass, where from beneath an enormous block of mica slate, 

 the infant Beeas had its birth at a height of 12,941 feet. On the 

 top of this block we built a pile of stones, and in the midst erected 

 a slab on which we inscribed our initials. The crest of the Rotung- 

 joth, or pass, is a little higher than the mica slate block, or just 13,000 

 feet, from which it slopes gradually to the north for about a mile over a 

 hard bed of snow. The heat and glare reflected from the snow were 

 intolerable, and our faces were completely blistered. From this the view 

 of the snowy peaks of Tartary, the land of undissolving snow, was 

 extensive and beautiful. Three thousand feet beneath us rolled the 

 Chundra river, which even there was a deep stream, 100 feet wide ; 

 and on all sides was dazzling snow, from the midst of which towered 

 the gigantic mountains, 



Whose lofty peaks to distant realms in sight, 



Present a Siva's smile, a lotus white. 



One of the peaks, about twenty miles higher up the river, appeared 

 like a mighty natural obelisk against the cloudless blue sky. It is call- 

 ed Indr-sar-deo-ka-thdn, or " the abode of the supreme deity, Indra." 



The descent was steep and rugged for about three miles to the bank 

 of the Chundra river, which we crossed by a suspension bridge made of 



