260 Notes of an Excursion to the Pindree Glacier. [March, 



also of crystalline and slaty quartz, the latter often considerably colored 

 with iron between the layers ; horneblende rock is also common ; and 

 masses of the same granite which forms the great range at least up to 

 Gungootee. Though it exhibits quartz, felspar, and mica, the felspar 

 is in such excess to the other minerals, and large crystals of black 

 schorl are so abundant, that Captain Herbert probably did not recognize 

 it to be granite, and hence his denial that this rock is found in the 

 snowy range. — It certainly differs much in appearance from the more 

 authentic granite which we find north and south of the Great Chain, in 

 Kunawar and Kumaoon. 



My investigations were cut short by the very threatening appearance 

 of the weather, and to his great relief, I at last commanded Ramsingh 

 to retreat. At one period, he had evidently lost his way, and become 

 confused on the glacier, and on quitting it, he turned round, joined 

 his hands, and made a low reverence towards Nunda Devee ; on the 

 intensitive principle invented by Puff in the critic of firing six morning 

 guns instead of one, I own I was strongly tempted to imitate and even 

 surpass my guide by making six vows in the same direction, but there 

 was no time for formalities, and the goddess who is pacified for a million 

 of years by the sacrifice of a man, is not to be bearded with impunity 

 in her own den ; so, without further ceremony, we started, and passing 

 Dooglee, in one hour reached Diwalee, in an hour and a half more, under 

 pelting showers the whole distance. Messrs. Hort and Powys had 

 arrived from Khathee an hour before me. 



The existence of alternate diurnal currents of air to and from the 

 Himalaya, the first of which I experienced to-day, resembles in its 

 regularity, the land and sea breezes of many tropical coasts, and is a 

 fact which all travellers in these mountains must have remarked, though 

 none that I am aware of, has recorded or attempted to explain it.* 

 All along the exterior ranges we find that during the warm season, at 

 least, about 9 or 10 a. m. a strong gale sets in from the plains, well 

 known at Mussooree as the " Dhoon Breeze," and equally prevalent and 

 grateful at Nynee Tal, &c. from 2 to 3 p. m. ; it reaches the snowy 

 range, blowing violently up all the passes from the Sutlej to the Kalee ; 



* Mr. Battrn informs me tliat the Rev. J. H. Pratt has written an essay on 

 this subject in a literary Journal of Cambridge ; which I have not had the advant- 

 age of consulting. 



