Dec. 1848. KAMBACHEN PASS. 253 



off, and I had a partial, though limited, view. To the 

 north the blue ice-clad peak of Nango was still 2000 

 feet above us, its snowy mantle falling in great sweeps 

 and curves into glacier-bound valleys, over which the 

 ice streamed out of sight, bounded by black aiguilles 

 of gneiss. The Yangma valley was quite hidden, but to 

 the eastward the view across the stupendous gorge of the 

 Kambachen, 5000 feet below, to the waste of snow, ice, 

 and rock, piled in confusion along the top of the range 

 of Junnoo and Choonjerma, parallel to this but higher, 

 was very grand indeed : this we were to cross in two 

 days, and its appearance was such, that our guide doubted 

 the possibility of our doing it. A third and fourth moun- 

 tain mass (unseen) lay beyond this, between us and Sikkim, 

 divided by valleys as deep as those of Yangma and 

 Kambachen. 



Having hung up my instruments, I ascended a few 

 hundred feet to some naked rocks, to the northward j they 

 were of much-crumpled and dislocated gneiss, thrown up 

 at a very high angle, and striking north-west. Chlorite, 

 schist, and quartz, in thin beds, alternated with the gneiss, 

 and veins of granite and quartz were injected through 

 them. 



It fell calm ; when the distance to which the voice was 

 carried was very remarkable ; I could distinctly hear every 

 word spoken 300 to 400 yards off, and did not raise 

 my voice when I asked one of the men to bring me a 

 hammer. 



The few plants about were generally small tufted Are- 

 narias and woolly Composite, with a thick-rooted Umbellifer 

 that spread its short, fleshy leaves and branches flat on the 

 ground ; the root was very aromatic, but wedged close in 

 the rock. The temperature at 4 p.m. was 23°, and bitterly 



