1846.] and Boorun Passes over the Himalaya. 123 



of the Pass, 12,871 feet above the sea line, is attained after a consider- 

 able ascent in the region above the forest, with lofty grey crags and 

 spires of gneiss and mica slate above on the right hand ; and is conside- 

 red high enough to be worthy of the stone cairns which mark the fear 

 and the gratitude of the mountaineer. Being fortunate in a cloudless 

 day, we rested a considerable time on the summit to inoculate our 

 minds with the most extensive and magnificent panorama around us. 

 The snowy range, that embodied eternity, " shining like truth" or 

 rather considerably more brilliant, is seen to perfection, and not looking 

 the worse for a good sprinkling of snow yesterday; the Changsheel 

 itself is perceived in this direction emanating from the parent mass in a 

 ridge of shattered crags and pinnacles, on which summer may be fancied 

 to have been just impaled by the frost- giants ; and the range from the 

 Boorun to the Shatool Pass, with its lofty, shelving, and now russet- 

 tinged continuation towards Rampoor and Huttoo. It is interesting to 

 observe how regularly the forest all round ceases at a regular level, or 

 at best creeps beyond the line of demarcation a little in the ravines, to 

 be succeeded by the zone of grass and flowers. Kooar is seen below 

 to the east, and on the west the view reaches down the vale of the 

 Pabur to Chergaon and Rooroo. To the SW. is a great reach of the 

 Changsheel, the rounded and almost tabular summits rising consider- 

 ably above the luxuriant forest which clothes their lower declivities, and 

 presenting a gently sloping surface of the finest yellow autumnal tints ; 

 a most inviting though rather remote site for a settlement. The supply 

 of wood for fuel and timber is inexhaustible ; and the rice of Chooara 

 would supply abundance of one important element of food : — at all events, 

 it would furnish a most eligible spot for the head- quarters of a summer 

 party from Simla. The circle of vision is completed on the south by 

 a dreamy, mystic, " multitudinous sea," with the snowy range for the 

 bounding surf, the swelling outlines melting into each other, and the 

 whole seeming as if it reposed to all eternity after the enormous efforts 

 by which it was upheaved. The Himalaya is seen to the best advantage, 

 not at noon, but a little before sun-set, when, especially in the cold 

 season, its whole extent is at once, and most gloriously lit up to a rose 

 or copper colour, " one living sheet of burnished gold." Gradually the 

 " sober livery of grey twilight" creeps up towards the loftiest peaks, 

 extinguishes all their " bright lights" and replaces them with the deadly 



