Nov. 1848. ANCIENT MORAINES. 2'M 



revenues of such a position, near a pass frequented almost 

 throughout the year, must be considerable. Every yak 

 going and coming is said to pay Is., and every horse 4s. ; 

 cattle, sheep, ponies, land, and wool are all taxed; he 

 exports also quantities of timber to Tibet, and various 

 articles from the plains of India. He joined my party and 

 halted where I did, had his little Chinese rug spread, and 

 squatted cross-legged on it, whilst his servant prepared his 

 brick tea with salt, butter, and soda, of which he partook, 

 snuffed, smoked, rose up, had all his traps repacked, and 

 was off again. 



We encamped at a most remarkable place : the valley 

 was broad, with little vegetation but stunted tree-junipers : 

 rocky snow-topped mountains rose on either side, bleak, 

 bare, and rugged ; and in front, close above my tent, was 

 a gigantic wall of rocks, piled — as if by the Titans — com- 

 pletely across the valley, for about three-quarters of a mile. 

 This striking phenomenon had excited all my curiosity on 

 first obtaining a view of it. The path, I found, led over it, 

 close under its west end, and wound amongst the enor- 

 mous detached fragments of which it was formed, and 

 which were often eighty feet square : all were of gneiss and 

 schist, with abundance of granite in blocks and veins. A 

 superb view opened from the top, revealing its nature to be 

 a vast moraine, far below the influence of any existing 

 glaciers, but which at some antecedent period had been 

 thrown across by a glacier descending to 10,000 feet, from 

 a lateral valley on the east flank. Standing on the top, and 

 looking south, was the Yangma valley (up which I had 

 come), gradually contracting to a defile, girdled by snow- 

 tipped mountains, whose rocky flanks mingled with the 

 black pine forest below. Eastward the moraine stretched 

 south of the lateral valley, above which towered the snowy 



