930 Journal of a trip through Kunawur. [Nov. 



below it had long been reaped and housed. Khanum is said to pro- 

 duce the best sooklat, or woollen cloth, of any town in Kunawur ; it is 

 made chiefly of the byangee wool, or fleece of the Choomontee sheep, 

 in Chinese Tartary. 



From Labrung there are two roads to Soongnum, the next stage, 

 one lying along the base of the hills, which is very bad, and merely 

 a bye path ; the other crossing the Koonung pass, which although quite 

 practicable, was represented as being still deeply buried in snow. 

 My people however declined attempting the heights, and preferred 

 taking the lower road, so I started alone with the Churriah and a guide 

 across the mountain path. 



The ascent is long and steep, as may be gathered from its crest 

 being 5,212 feet higher than our last encampment; it is however far 

 from difficult, and the road is excellent, but unfortunately at this 

 season we saw nothing of it above 13,000 feet, as it lay buried in the 

 snows, which were spread in a broad white sheet over the whole range. 

 Following the traces of a flock of sheep which some days previously 

 had crossed the pass, we managed to do well enough without the road. 



From Labrung we first ascended through a forest of Kayloo and 

 Neoza pines, beneath which were spread vast beds of junipers and 

 furze, with here and there a few fine currant and gooseberry bushes 

 loaded with small green fruit, but as yet far from ripe. Farther up, 

 these beds of junipers increased, and were intermingled with another 

 species growing more like a bush, and the same as is known at Leepee 

 by the name of Tilloo. 



Gradually as we mounted up the hill, the pines decreased in numbers 

 and in size, dwindling at length to dwarfish shrubs and ceasing al- 

 together at about 12,500 feet of elevation. Here first began the snow, 

 lying in large fields or patches, and uniting at about 13,000 feet into 

 one broad unbroken sheet, from whence to the summit of the pass, or 

 1,500 feet more, it continued so. The depth generally was not great, 

 though in some places up to the middle or even higher ; where it had 

 drifted or had been hurled down in avalanches from above, of course 

 the depth far exceeded the stature of a man. 



The only danger in crossing these fields of snow at this season, 

 when the thaws commence, is for loaded people, for if they fall in deep 

 or broken snow, they run a risk of either being smothered beneath 

 the weight of their burdens, or of losing the things they carry. The 

 fatigue however, even to us without any loads at all, was great and 

 distressing, owing to the steepness of the latter part of the way, for the 

 path which winds gradually to the crest being lost to sight, we were 



