508 Journal of a trip through Kunawur, fyc. [No. 101. 



hereafter in my geological notice of the Spiti valley, that those species 

 may be peculiar to the lake or lakes of those lofty regions, and that 

 they date their existence from the period when those waters first be- 

 came adapted to support the species which now inhabit them, and that 

 date I fix as posterior to the Mosaic Deluge, when, as I shall hereafter 

 have occasion to notice at some length,* the Himalayan ranges were 

 first upheaved, and many climates were called into existence, requiring 

 new creations to inhabit them, as they themselves were new. 



It was for the purpose of endeavouring to elucidate this point, that 

 I felt so anxious to obtain a passage to the Lake Chummor-ra-reel, and 

 my disappointment may therefore be conceived, when I found the 

 pass impracticable from the unusual depth of snow which had fallen 

 so late in the season as the month of April, and which indeed fell 

 again, as I witnessed, for three successive days, during the latter end 

 of June, even so low down as Pokh in the bottom of the valley. 



The clearing up of these doubts is a subject well worthy the serious 

 attention of any naturalist who may have the means and the inclination 

 to visit the lake in question. 



On the 23d of June, we proceeded once more towards Dunkur by 

 a most precipitous path, which wound backwards and forwards on the 

 side of the hill in such a zig-zag manner that we were almost in a line 

 one above another. The loose nature of the gravelly soil by no means 

 added either to our comfort or safety, for those behind were continually 

 showering down vollies of dust and stones upon the heads of those 

 who were below. This descent at length brought us to the side of a 

 brawling stream, whose waters were dashing over the precipitous rocks 

 with headlong violence in their passage to join the Lingtee river, 

 many hundred feet below us. At the very place where this stream 

 was the most violent, and where it fell over the rocks in a long sheet 

 of foam, a faint shout of many voices reached my ear above the hoarse 

 roar of the cataract, and looking upwards, I beheld to my horror and 

 dismay, a large fragment of rock, rolling down the side of the hill 

 directly upon me. So hampered was I for room, with the steep 

 crumbling hill on the one hand, and the deep chasm on the other, that 

 I should undoubtedly have stuck fast to await the coming blow, had 

 not a Tartar near me, with more presence of mind than gentleness, 

 pulled me flat on my back and allowed the fragment to fly pass us into 



* A Theory of the Earth. 



