1839. 2 Journal of a trip through Kunamur. 947 



alluvial clays towered up to some height, and the surface being flat and 

 studded with a few bushes was pointed out as the usual halting place. 

 As by halting here however we should have had a long and fatiguing 

 march on the morrow to Larree, I thought it advisable to push on for 

 another level spot, a couple of miles farther, where the Tartars said 

 there was a stream of good water, and shelter beneath the rocks for all 

 my people. The road now ran along the left bank of the Spiti river, 

 at about 300 feet above its level. 



The Spiti is a larger and finer looking river than the Sutledge, and 

 the people of the country, as well as the Kunawurees who have seen 

 the two, say that it is never equalled by the latter, except during the 

 winter months, when the severity of the frosts in the districts through 

 which the Spiti flows, causes a less plentiful supply of water to fall 

 into it. 



Its waters though rapid and muddy, have in general far less of that 

 dashing violence which the Sutledge exhibits. This is most probably 

 to be attributed to the nature of the country through which it flows. 

 The Sutledge winding its rapid course among hard rocks of the 

 primary formation, must often meet with obstacles, which cause it to 

 break in impotent fury on its banks, in waves which hurl the spray 

 far on high, curling and bubbling as it flows along over stones and 

 boulders of various sizes. 



The Spiti, on the other hand, though sometimes violent and rough, 

 more generally glides along in a broad and rapid sheet through rocks 

 belonging to the secondary class, and whose less firm and solid texture 

 yields to the action of the current, which sweeps their crumbling frag- 

 ments irresistibly before it. 



The observations of Dr. Gerard also serve to corroborate the infor- 

 mation furnished by the natives relatively to the two rivers. Accord- 

 ing to that traveller, the greatest breadth of the Sutledge at its narrow- 

 est parts where bridges occur is 211 feet, while at other places he mea- 

 sured it 450 feet across. This however is low down, and after the 

 river has received the additional waters of the Spiti and Para, united 

 in the Lee ; the true comparison therefore cannot be formed, after the 

 junction of the two rivers, but before. 



At Skialkur, according to Gerard, the Lee in breadth was ninety- 

 two feet, and in August he thought it contained fully as much water 

 as the Sutledge, than which it was broadest, the latter river being at 

 their confluence but seventy-four feet. The true comparison of the 

 Spiti and the Sutledge, must be institued however, before the junc- 

 tion of the Paratee with the former, and of the Lee with the latter, 



