1848.] Journal of a trip through Kulu and Ldhul, fyc. 215 



Saturday j 5th September. To the Yunam lake, 13 miles. Road 

 for 5 miles good, but very stony ; with a gentle ascent to Mongpa 

 (or Mapii) a level halting place at the foot of the Bara Lacha Pass. 

 From this point we crossed the Bhaga on a solid mass of snow, which 

 stretched right across the river, and beneath which the stream rushed 

 along impetuously. In A. D. 1820 Moorcroft saw a mass of snow 

 across the river in this very spot. Beyond this the road was a gentle 

 ascent for 4 miles to the Suraj Dul, or lake, which is a small oblong 

 sheet of clear green water hemmed in at its western end by the debris 

 of rocks fallen from above, about one quarter of a mile long, and half 

 as broad. The water finds its way out of the lake unseen through this 

 mass of disintegrated rocks. From thence the road was for nearly a 

 mile almost level, along the dry bed of the lake, and then a short but 

 steep ascent to the top of the Pass. From the total absence of snow 

 this year the source of the Bhaga was traceable to a ridge to the east- 

 ward of the Pass, somewhat more than a mile above the lake. This is 

 the true source of the Bhaga river ; for the Chandra rises on the oppo- 

 site side of the ridge. 



We were particularly fortunate in the mildness of the season which 

 had melted every trace of snow on the Pass. It is remarkable that we 

 crossed the Bara-Lacha on the anniversary of the day on which Moor- 

 croft had crossed it twenty-six years before us. He found the snow 

 "lying in vast undisturbed masses/' on all the great slopes and crests 

 of the chain. Bara-Lacha, or as it is often called, Bara-Lach, means 

 the "middle pass," it being the middle one of the three great passes 

 on the high road from Ladak to Kulu and Mundi ; the others being 

 the Langa-Lach and the Kotang. 



At mid-day the temperature in the shade was 55°, and the boiling 

 point of water by an excellent thermometer by Dollond, was 183*5°, 

 which, following Prinsep's tables, would give a height of 16,276 feet, 

 or 224 feet too low, the actual height having been correctly ascertained 

 on two separate occasions by Moorcroft and Gerard, from barometrical 

 measurements, to be 16,500 feet. In 1839 a capital thermometer 

 belonging to Capt. Broome made the height to be 16,332 feet, or 168 

 feet too low. 



The summit of the Pass is almost level for about half a mile. Each 

 of the prominent parts is crowned by a pile of stones covered with 



