1840.] Journal of a trip through Kunawur, fyc. 507 



fact, that such a sudden transfer of the ova of species belonging to hot 

 climates, to the waters of a lake which is elevated so far above the na- 

 tural abode of the species, and which are often ice bound for several 

 months in the year, would render the ova thus transported totally 

 unfruitful ; and that the climate of these regions is totally different 

 from that of the plains, is a fact which is fully established by the mi- 

 gration of birds to them during the summer season. 



Again, those birds may resort there from the plains of China, as 

 well as from those of Hindoostan, and as it is equally probable that ova 

 would have been brought from both countries, we should find species 

 of fish peculiar to either country, not only being together in the same 

 climate, but in a climate which differs widely from the natural habitat 

 of all the species. 



Moreover, I question whether the ova could have been brought from 

 the plains of either country, because the birds by whose agency the waters 

 should have been stocked, quit the rivers of the plains, and resort to 

 those high regions in order to avoid the hot season in which the ova are 

 produced; therefore the ova could not have been brought by them. 



If, again, the lake was stocked with fish through the agency of the 

 water fowl which resort to it, how is it that the smaller lakes and ponds 

 have not been similarly stocked also, for both at Nako in Hungrung, 

 and at Gewmil on the heights of Spiti, I observed the Brahminee duck, 

 so common in the plains of India, yet the ponds at those places do not 

 contain a single fish ? 



But as the birds do not arrive at the lake in question, in the course 

 of one or even two days, but make various halts in their journey from 

 the plains, it is at once apparent, that the undigested ova which they 

 are supposed to have brought with them, should have been voided rather 

 in the ponds of the intermediate stages, than in the waters of these 

 stupendous regions. 



But the most decided proof, perhaps, that this lake was not 

 stocked from the rivers of the plains by the agency of birds, exists in 

 the fact that its waters are salt, and strongly impregnated with borax ; 

 consequently the ova of species adapted for an existence in pure fresh 

 rivers and ponds, could not have been productive in regions and 

 waters decidedly inimical to their constitutions. 



The question however, is one of some moment, and worthy of being 

 fully sifted. I am myself inclined to believe, as will be more fully seen 



