1850.] Notice of a Trip to the Niti Pass. 79 



Notice of a Trip to the Niti Pass. By Lieut. R. Strachey. Com- 

 municated by order of the Hon'ble the Liu et. -Governor, 

 N. W. P. 



I returned here some days ago from Niti, and although I have not 

 much in the way of personal narration to give, all that I expected has, 

 I believe, been done. I reached Niti early in July, having as I passed 

 Joshinath (at the union of Dauli and Vishnuganj) set up a Barome- 

 ter, &c. there with a rain-gauge. These have been regularly registered 

 from the end of June, till the middle of October, as also have a similar 

 set of instruments at Niti. At both places, the registers were kept by 

 natives of Almora whom I took up with me. About a week after my 

 arrival at Niti, 1 started on my first expedition. My route you will 

 see from the accompanying sketch map. The old map showed none of 

 this and my brother's map was likewise quite wrong, so it was not till 

 I had been over the ground that I got a clear idea of the geography 

 of this part of the country. I went via, Marshak pass 18,500 ft. to 

 Raj-hote, there visited the pass into Tibet called Tumjun-la 16,500 

 and went down the river from Raj-hote as far as it was practicable, 

 returning to Niti by Chor-hoti pass 17,500. You will see that this 

 valley of the Raj-hote river exactly corresponds to those crossed on the 

 road, from Milam into Hundes, the Marshak and Chor-hoti passes being 

 the parallel of Unta-dhura, and the identity is still further shown by 

 the geological structure of the mountain ranges. During this and my 

 subsequent journey, I collected a considerable number of fossil shells 

 which I have no doubt will enable competent geologists to decide fully 

 on the age of the strata in which they were found. I can only venture 

 on generalities. 



Shortly after my return to Niti, I was joined by my brother Henry 

 from Ladak, who came via To-ling and the Niti pass without meeting 

 with any obstruction. He remained with me till my return here. 

 With his help I began horary meteorological observations at Niti, 

 which were continued without interruption for six days, by which time 

 it had become clear that the law of the hourly variations had been 

 sufficiently developed. About the first week in August, after these 

 observations had been completed we started together for the Niti pass, 



