372 Narrative of a Journey from Soobathoo [No. 125. 



Brooang was about N. E., here we found we had reached the northern 

 point of the Sutlej in latitude 31° 50', it lay about two miles upon our 

 left hand, and from this place its direction all the way to its source in 

 the celebrated lake of Mansurowur is nearly E. S. E. 



The wind was so strong, that we could with difficulty keep our feet, 

 and it is said to blow with almost equal violence throughout the 

 year. We saw some snow on our right a little below us, and beyond 

 it a peak above 20,000 feet high, off which the snow was drifting 

 in showers, from the force of the wind. From the pass to camp, the 

 road was a moderate descent upon gravel, winding very much. 



Shipke is a large village in the district of Rongzhoong, under the 

 Deba or Governor of Chubrung, a town, or rather collection of tents on 

 the left bank of the Sutlej, eight marches to the eastward. The houses 

 here are very much scattered, and are built of stone with flat roofs, 

 there are gardens before each hedged with gooseberries, which give 

 them a neat appearance. This is a populous place; we counted up- 

 wards of eighty men, who on our arrival came to meet us, being the first 

 Europeans they had ever seen. 



The Tartars pleased us much; they have none of that ferocity of 

 character so commonly ascribed to them ; they have something of the 

 Chinese features, and their eyes are small ; they go bare-headed even 

 in the coldest weather, and have their hair plaited into a number 

 of folds ending in a tail two or three feet long. Their dress consists 

 of a garment of blanket, trowsers of striped woollen stuff resembling 

 Tartan, and stockings or boots of red blanket, to which are sewed 

 leather shoes ; most wear necklaces, upon which are strung pieces of 

 quartz or bone ; they have also knives in brass or silver cases, and 

 all carry iron pipes of the same shape as those used by labourers at 

 home, and the higher classes have them ornamented with silver ; in com- 

 mon with the inhabitants of Koonawur, the greater part of them 

 have a flint and piece of steel for striking fire, attached to their apparel 

 by a metal chain. The women whose dress resembles that of the men, 

 were literally groaning under a load of ornaments, which are mostly 

 of iron or brass, inlaid with silver or tin, and beads round their necks, 

 wrists, and ankles, and affixed to almost every part of their clothes. 



13M October. — Halted. My brother took a walk of about a mile farther 

 on, with the perambulator and pocket compass, for we did not think it 



