S16 Visit to the Niti Pass, [April, 



er up. Wedged in the blue limestone in the ascent back to the crest 

 Of the pass, I observed a large bed of thinly laminated and contorted 

 argillaceous schist. The round quartz stones are every where scattered. 



I see no difference whatever either in the geological character of 

 the hills or the form, of the ranges, between one side of the pass and 

 the other. Tartar?/ is in fact entered very soon after leaving Niti 

 village, and the peaks seen so grandly towering in the south are the 

 i'eal beginning of the Himalaya mountains, and not the crest of the 

 pass. Pray come and see whether I am not right in conjecturing that 

 fossil ammonites can be found on the south face of the Niti pass, 

 which is in my idea, only the highest portion of the Tartaric plain, 

 running up to the Himalaya peaks. Even at Niti, there are peaks 

 23,000 feet high due south ; and there as well as at the pass itself the 

 spectator wonders how one is to thread one's way into Hindustan 

 through them, no gorge or glen being visible, that seems to be like an 

 introit or exit. Behind Maldri the hills become round and Tartaric 

 also, as well as behind Niti, but being higher and within the limit of 

 perpetual snow, they are difficult to cross, and the pass following a 

 river bed is preferred. The time to visit Niti is from the 20th Sept. to 

 the 10th Oct. In May, Maldri even is hardly reachable, and the snow 

 does not melt in any part of Upper Pynkanda till the end of that 

 month. The pass is not open till July, and it shuts now. On the 

 evening of the day (11th Oct.) on which I visited the pass, the first 

 snow fell. All night it snowed heavily and next day I could hardly 

 reach Niti ! Such are the vicissitudes at this season. At 3 p. m. when 

 the wind got up, the thermometer was 30° in the shade and 42° in the 

 sun at the crest of the pass. On the morning of the 12th, in my camp at 

 14,500 feet, the thermometer was 16° in the air and 22° at my bedside I 



I shall wait till I get back to send you specimens. I have a good 

 many fossil bones brought from the interior of Thibet, and from the 

 Mdna pass. They are however very broken and small. 



P. S. The Hindu pilgrims who visit Manasarovara Lake go up 

 by the Mima pass, which is merely the continuance of the glen of the 

 Saraswati above Badrindth, (as the Niti pass is of the Dhauli river,) 

 and they return by the Nitang pass behind Gangautri or by Niti. 

 These two last are the easiest of all the passes, Nilang being without 

 much ascent and being the course of the Jhanndbi river, which rises on 

 the Thibet side. The Juwdhir pass is the most difficult, but being 

 near Almora the greatest traffic, nevertheless, is carried on in that 

 pass. The Neipdl passes are all easy. The pilgrims leave Mdna in 

 July, and return to this side in the beginning of October. 



