462 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [May, 



Our next march was to Lengloang the residence of a sooba in Lat. 27° 29' 13" 

 (our extreme not them limit thus far) Long. 91° 3' 45" and 4523 feet above the 

 sea. These residences of the soobas are all built on the summit of a projecting 

 spur from some contiguous range, with a stream flowing on either side from the 

 superior heights. The edifice generally consists of a series of buildings erected 

 without any particular attention to form, the sole object being apparently to 

 make the most of the very scanty ground adapted to building on the sloping face 

 of a narrow ridge, and the filth that reigns in these " baronial castles" is greater 

 than you could possibly imagine, but admirably adapted for the residence of the 

 disgustingly dirty race that inhabits them. 1 have never in all my wanderings 

 met with a people so radically filthy in all their habits. After leaving Lenglong 

 we travelled two days through a more open and better cultivated tract of country 

 than we had previously seen, the fields being all terraced and the face of the hills 

 less precipitous. 



On the third day however we again left this comparatively civilized portion 

 of Eootan and struggled amidst snow and ice to obtain the massive flank of 

 the Roodoola range of mountains, which like that crossed on the 15th, was 

 covered with snow from its summit down to about 4000 feet above the sea, 

 when the first traces began to appear. We halted for the night of the 25th 

 of February, in a miserable hovel at a place called Peiree 9700 feet above the sea, 

 surrounded on every side by snow, and with the formidable ridge of the Roodoola 

 towering full 4000 feet above us. The snow had recently fallen and we suffered 

 extremely from its want of compactness on the following morning, when we com- 

 menced climbing the zig-zag path which led to the ridge ; the path was in 

 many instances, where it was carried round the mural side of a peak, entirely 

 formed by narrow slabs of gneiss only a few inches broad, forming under the 

 most favourable circumstances but an insecure footing, and covered as they now 

 were with snow from two to four feet deep it required the utmost caution to 

 avoid falling over the precipices into the abyss which yawned below. At one spot 

 we had nearly lost our ponies which did go over, but were saved by strong halters 

 which had been secured to them in anticipation of the accident. Two years ago 

 in this same month (February) five Bhuteeahs were lost at this formidable pass ; 

 they fell over the precipice, were buried in the snow, and their bodies discovered 

 in the summer when it had melted. A narrow defile between two peaks of gneiss 

 which rise about 500 feet above the path brought us to the 6pot from which the 

 rangederives its name of Roodoola, and this proved to be 12335 feet above the sea 

 level. We ascended about 300 feet higher and then commenced a rapid descent 

 through cedar and fir forests to a mountain valley called Boomdunglung 8670 

 feet above the sea-, one of the most attractive spots we had seen in Boot an, sur«. 

 rounded on every side by mountains covered with snow, which gradually disap- 

 peared as it reached the elevation of the valley. Here we shot magpies, larks, 

 curlews, a quail, a duck, saruses, and some others which we had not before met 

 with. We have since passed through two more of these alpine valleys, those of Jugur 

 and Jaresah which are respectively 8150 and 9400 feet above the sea. We were 

 at these places on the 5th instant, when the scanty wheat crops were barely above 

 the ground, while here at an elevation of 6500 feet, and only three geographical 

 miles further south, the wheat is in ear, but promising a miserable return. These 

 three valleys are the only ones we have yet met with since entering the hills, they 

 are watered by streams of remarkable transparency, and the heights around them 

 are either composed of gneiss, or a talcose slate in a state of rapid decomposi- 

 tion. 



We have now entered apparently a more temperate region, though the wea- 

 ther is bleak and unpleasantly cold at times. We hope to start for Punakah 

 in a day or two, which is not more than five marches distant. It is strange 

 that every Bhuteeah who has been asked points to the southward of west 

 as the division of Punakah while Turner in his map givea its Latitude at 27° 57' 

 about 27i miles to the northward of this : is it possible that he can have made such 

 a mistake ? I think not ; but 1 hope soon to be satisfied on this point. Commu- 

 nication can be held with Goalparrah from hence in 8 days, and I am preparing 

 my dispatches to send off as soon as I have an opportunity. There has been a 

 rebellion in the country ; the Deb who guided the helm of the state when I left 



