1172 Visit to Melum and the Oonta [No. 132. 



who was with me, tie a cloth round under my arms, and then fastened it 

 to the jubboo's tail, by which means I ascended to the steepest part 

 with very tolerable fatigue, and was relieved from that insupportable 

 weariness of the limbs. 



From the top of the Pass ran a small stream of water.* Long before 

 we reached this part of our journey, all signs of vegetation had disap- 

 peared, and here the mountain was covered with small fragments of 

 rock, clay slate, &c. The strata of the heights to the right and left 

 of the ascent were very much contorted in all directions. We were one 

 hour and twenty-five minutes in accomplishing this last ascent, which 

 we afterwards descended in twenty-five minutes.f 



On reaching the summit of the Pass,J an immense sea of mountains 

 lay before us, gradually diminishing in size from the N. W. to the 

 North, in which latter direction our guide told us lay Gertope, to which 

 place two roads led, the nearest one, by which two other ranges were 

 to be crossed by Khylas, the other by Doom poo, by which only one 

 other range, in fact a continuation of the range on which the Pass is 

 situated, was to be crossed. The people, with their sheep laden, cross 

 these ranges in one day. The mountains to the N. W. were partially 

 covered with snow, (and the Pass on the northern face completely 



» On 29th May last, nearly the entire side of the Pass had water trickling down 

 it.— J. A. W. 



f On the 29th May last, I walked up it with ease in one hour and fifteen minutes. 

 —J. A. W. 



J This account as to routes and general geography is hased on incorrect information. 

 Moreover, from Oonta Dhoora no view is obtainable into Thibet, though this Pass has 

 been usually considered the frontier of the two countries. The range visible to the 

 North from Oonta Dhoora is Bulcha, the real termination of the Cis-Sutlej, Himalaya 

 and the sea of mountains visible to the North-west is within, i. e. Southward of, the 

 prolongation of the above mentioned Bulcha range to the Westward. 'Whenever 

 the water from the Northern slopes of the Himalaya flows into the valley, (or rather 

 series of plateaus divided by ravines,) through which the Sutlej takes its early course, 

 the last range of the Himalaya may be said to be passed. Whenever, as at Neelung, 

 beyond Gangootree and Topeedoonga and Lufkel, beyond Oonta Dhoora, (the Juwahir 

 Pass,) the streams rising even on the North face eventually flow Southward, and join 

 the great Cis-Himalayan rivers, that country is properly, (i. e. geographically, not 

 geologically) within the Himalaya chain, whatever elevation may have been crossed to 

 reach it, and, however, nominally the said chain may have previously terminated in a 

 political frontier. Compare with Captain Manson's account that now appended from 

 the Journal of Lieutenant Weller, Engineers, and my own observations from the crest 

 of the Neetee Pass, published in the Asiatic Society's Journal of 1838.— J. H. B. 



