202 Capt. Huttoris Geological Report. [No. 111. 



an elevation exceeding that of the main or central chain on which he 

 stands. 



Around him, far and wide, he beholds these rugged and awe-inspiring 

 peaks rising pre-eminently grand amidst the sea of mountains by which 

 he is surrounded, and he now first learns that the line of snow he has 

 witnessed from the plains, is the wintery sheet which envelopes these 

 often widely separated masses, but which to the eye of the far-off observer, 

 have become blended by the distance into one long line of continuous 

 snowy peaks. 



The central range, and all the hills, with the exception of these loftiest 

 peaks and some deep secluded glens, usually lose the sheet of snows 

 during the period that the monsoon is raging in the plains. It is at this 

 season that the snows send down the greatest supplies of water to the 

 rivers, commencing about the end of May and continuing till September, 

 when the frosts again arrest the dissolving snows, and the mountains once 

 more put on the pure and dazzling robes of winter, and continue thus 

 enveloped in one sheet of snows until the approach of summer again re- 

 lieves them. 



No sooner has the wintery garment disappeared, than a fine rich sward 

 at once springs up, almost as if by magic, so rapid is the vegetation in 

 these high tracts, — affording abundant pasture to the flocks and herds, 

 which then range over them to the height of 15,000 feet above the sea. 



This smiling and verdant state of things is, however, unhappily of short 

 duration, appearing like the transient gleam of sunshine that often precedes 

 the fiercest storm, yielding in the space of two short months to the 

 drifting whirlwind and wreaths of snow, that soon enshroud the whole in 

 cold and dreary solitude. 



Journeying from Kotgurh, in the lower hills, towards the Spiti valley, 

 the geological formations which came under my observation from that 

 station to the frontiers of Tartary, were exclusively of the primary class. 



Commencing at Kotgurh, and crossing the brow of the hill above 

 Kaypoo, we find strata of mica and hornblende schists, jutting up through 

 the surface, interspersed with veins and nodules of quartz. 



These veins are often found to contain iron disseminated in small thin 

 scales resembling mica, and in such cases the quartz is generally in a state 

 of decomposition. This ore pays no duty to Government, and the mines, 

 if indeed such they can be called, are seldom worked, being so unproduc- 

 tive, that out of 14 lbs. weight of the rough ore only 2 lbs. of iron, and 

 that impure, can be procured. 



Veins and masses of coarse primitive calc spar or carbonate of lime are 

 also seen to accompany the mica slate. These rocks continue, with an 



