Nov. 1848. SUMMIT OF WALLANCHOON. 22.3 



which is reached in two or three days. There is no plain or 

 level ground of any kind before reaching that river, of which 

 the valley is said to be wide and flat. 



Starting at 10 a.m., we did not reach the top till 

 3^ p.m. ; we had halted nowhere, but the last few 

 miles had been most laborious, and the three of us 

 who gained the summit were utterly knocked up. For- 

 tunately I carried my own barometer ; it indicated 

 16-206 inches, giving by comparative observations with 

 Calcutta 16,764 feet, and with Dorjiling, 16,748 feet, as the 

 height of the pass. The thermometer stood at 18°, and the 

 sun being now hidden behind rocks, the south-east wind was 

 bitterly cold. Hitherto the sun had appeared as a clearly 

 defined sparkling globe, against a dark-blue sky • but the 

 depth of the azure blue was not so striking as I had 

 been led to suppose, by the accounts of previous travellers, 

 in very lofty regions. The plants gathered near the top of 

 the pass were species of Composite, grass, and Arenaria ; 

 the most curious was Saussurea gossypina, which forms 

 great clubs of the softest white wool, six inches to a 

 foot high, its flowers and leaves seeming uniformly 

 clothed with the warmest fur that nature can devise. 

 Generally speaking, the alpine plants of the Himalaya are 

 quite unprovided with any special protection of this kind ; 

 it is the prevalence and conspicuous nature of the exceptions 

 that mislead, and induce the careless observer to gene- 

 ralise hastily from solitary instances; for the prevailing alpine 

 genera of the Himalaya, Arenarias, primroses, saxifrages, 

 fumitories, Ranunculi, gentians, grasses, sedges, &c, have 

 almost uniformly naked foliage. 



We descended to the foot of the pass in about two hours, 

 darkness overtaking us by the way ; the twilight, however, 

 being prolonged by the glare of the snow. Fearing the 



