Silt. 1849. KtiBOLAH PASS. 141 



The Kinchinjhow spurs arc not accessible to so great 

 an elevation as those of Donkia, but they afford finer 

 views over Tibet, across the ridge connecting Kinchinjow 

 with Donkia. 



Broad summits here, as on the opposite side of the 

 valley, are quite bare of snow at 18,000 feet, though where 

 they project as sloping hog-backed spurs from the parent 

 mountain, the snows of the latter roll down on them and 

 form glacial caps, the reverse of glaciers in valleys, but 

 which overflow, as it were, on all sides of the slopes, and 

 are ribboned * and crevassed. 



On the 18th of September I ascended the range which 

 divides the Lachen from the Lachoong valley, to the Sebolah 

 pass, a very sharp ridge of gneiss, striking north-west and 

 dipping north-east, which runs south from Kinclnnjliow to 

 Chango-khang. A yak-track led across the Kinchinjhow 

 glacier, along the bank of the lake, and thence westward 

 up a very steep spur, on which was much glacial ice 

 and snow, but few plants above 16,000 feet. At nearly 

 17,000 feet I passed two small lakes, on the banks 

 of one of which 1 found bees, a May-fly (EpJiemera) 

 and gnat ; the two latter bred on stones in the water, 

 Avhich (the day being fine) had a temperature of 53°, 

 while that of the large lake at the glacier, 1000 feet lower, 

 was only 39°. 



The view from the summit commands the whole castel- 

 lated front of Kinchinjhow, the sweep of the Donkia 

 cliffs to the east, Chango-khang's blunt cone of ribbed snowf 

 over head, while to the west, across the grassy Palling 

 dunes rise Chomiomo, the Thlonok mountains, and Kinchin- 



* The convexity of the curves, however, seems to be upwards. Such reversed 

 glaciers, ending abruptly on broad stony shoulders quite free of snow, should on 

 no account be taken as indicating the lower limit of perpetual snow. 



+ This ridging or furrowing of steep snow-beds is explained at vol. i. p. 237. 



