1843.] Trip to the Bulcha and Oonta Dhoora Passes. 83 



either bank of the Goonka, but chiefly on the left,) infamously bad. The 

 hills on either side a series of dreary looking landslips or bare sheets 

 of rock ; and in the rains, when Bhoteeas travel up and down, this road 

 must be really dangerous from constant landslips and falling in of 

 the banks. Hardly any snow visible on the hill sides ; and Oonta Dhura 

 itself is nearly equally bare, if it is the hill pointed out to me when 

 about half way. Ther. 77° in tent, at lh. 30m. p. m. 



Riding a jooboo is by no means a bad mode of travelling. You sit 

 comfortably in a high demi-pack saddle,* which affords a capital 

 hold in front ; a man leads the jooboo by a string passed through its 

 nose ; and the pace though slow is very sure ; two or three times during 

 this trip my jooboo fell, but no harm was done. In general, it is wonder- 

 ful what difficult ground they will carry a man over. Jooboos laden in 

 fifty minutes, and we started again at 3 p. m. Weather had become 

 cloudy and cold. At 4h. 40m. crossed to right bank of Goonka river 

 by a natural bridge formed by three rocks, with fissures filled in by 

 loose stones where requisite, and at 4h. 45m. halted at Doong, (no 

 village,) a little West of the junction of the Goonka and Lusher rivers, 

 which come down from the N. W. and N. E. respectively. The 

 Goonka is covered by a huge mass of ice and stones, 4 or 500 yards 

 higher up ; and so doubtless is the Lusher, though not where it is visi- 

 ble from Doong. Road very bad ; hills on either side nothing but 

 landslips or bare precipices, with very little snow visible. I had one 

 fine view during the afternoon march of a huge mass of ice in the most 

 fantastic shapes, behind three peaks West of the Goonka ; but with 

 this exception, the prospect everywhere was most desolate, and above 

 Doong, it is, if possible, more so. Not a shrub, and hardly a blade of 

 grass visible any where. One eagle, two or three of the chough birds, 

 and as many smaller birds, were all the signs of life met with. There 

 was formerly a shorter road to Chirchun up the Lusher river, but it 

 has been abandoned as too dangerous from new snow covering fissures 

 in the old ice, and yielding when trod on, thus instantaneously preci- 

 pitating man and beast down a narrow fissure, heaven only knows how 

 deep. Latterly, when men have attempted this route, they did so with 



* The pack saddle used for jooboos is an excellent one; and I took one down as a 

 pattern, in event of one's requiring to use bullocks or ponies as baggage animals. 



