Nov. 1848. ENORMOUS PINES. WALLANCHOON. 200 



both that of the air, which here at 8,066 feet fell to 32° in 

 the night, and that of the river, which was always below 

 40°. It was in these narrow valleys only, that I observed 

 the return cold current rushing down the river-courses 

 during the nights, which were usually brilliant and very 

 cold, with copious dew : so powerful, indeed, was the 

 radiation, that the upper blanket of my bed became coated 

 with moisture, from the rapid abstraction of heat by the 

 frozen tarpaulin of my tent. 



The rivers here are often fringed by flats of shingle, on 

 which grow magnificent yews and pines ; some of the latter 

 were from 120 to 150 feet high, and had been blown 

 down, owing to their scanty hold on the soil. I measured 

 one, Abies Brunoniana, twenty feet in girth. Many alpine 

 rhododendrons occur at 9000 feet, with Astragalus and 

 creeping Tamarisk. Three miles below Wallanchoon the 

 river forks, being met by the Yangma from the north-east ; 

 they are impetuous torrents of about equal volume ; the 

 Tambur especially (here called the Walloong) is often broken 

 into cascades, and cuts a deep gorge-like channel. 



I arrived at the village of Wallanchoon on the 23rd of 

 November. It is elevated 10,385 feet, and situated in a fine 

 open part of the Tambur valley, differing from any part 

 lower down in all its natural features ; being broad, with a 

 rapid but not turbulent stream, very grassy, and both the 

 base and sides of the flanking mountains covered with 

 luxuriant dense bushes of rhododendron, rose, berberry and 

 juniper. Red-legged crows, hawks, wild pigeons, and 

 finches, abounded. There was but little snow on the 

 mountains around, which are bare and craggy above, but 

 sloping below. Bleak and forbidding as the situation 

 oi any Himalayan village at 10,000 feet elevation must 

 be, that of Wallanchoon is rendered the more so from the 



