1848.] Narrative of a Journey to Cko Lagan, fyc. 119 



tions of debris from the hill side above ; the Kunti here is shallow, but 

 rapid, and 50 or 60 feet wide ; the water much discoloured, either in 

 fact or in appearance, from the dark slate or limestone rocks over 

 which it rushes. 



We cross the remains of an old snow bank in the bed of the river, the 

 first met in this journey. 



The Pine trees are now getting scarce ; Birch continues and other 

 shrubs ; Red Currant (Ribes glaciale), Bhot : Mangle, fruits small and 

 insipid ; Black Currant (R. acuminatum), Bhot : Bongole, fruit equally 

 worthless, said to be very abundant under Xpi and Nampa ; Tarwa- 

 Chuk (Hippophae salicifolia) the berries of which are a palatable acid 

 when quite ripe, otherwise disagreeably sour ; Dog-rose, white and red 

 (Rosa sericea and Webbiand), Sephala and Gor-Sephala ; the Vibur- 

 num (V. cotinifolium), Khas : Guiyah, Bhot: Kotoble, with purple berry, 

 which grows in the lower hills also at considerable elevation ; and 

 Wormwood (Artemisia), Bhot : Pankima, scenting the air with its 

 fragrance. 



Cross Nampa (the 2d) a small garh from glacier, and snowy moun- 

 tain of the same name ; see marks of the Brown Bear, Barji. Further 

 on cross two or three small streams coming from the mountain Shak- 

 shiram, and on the opposite side of the river are two larger Garhs, 

 Selasiti and Kharkulum," from mountains of the same names. 



Here we are met by some of the men of Kunti come out for Istik- 

 bal, Kiti joint-Pudhan, with Rechu (who has accompanied us from 

 Chingrew), Tanjan, brother, and Tashigal, son of Rechu, the two last 

 young men and boy, clean, well dressed and smart looking, with a 

 pony gaily equipped in embroidered saddle cloth and bell-collar ; they 

 are as decent looking as the best of Jwari Bhotias, and a marked excep- 

 tion to all the rest of the Byansis that I have seen, who are shabby 

 and dirty, " usque ad nauseam j" but they are merely got up for 

 occasion I suppose, and will soon relapse into the general degradation 

 of dirt. 



The valley now opens again ; the mountains on our right hand recede 

 a little and then come round with a fine theatrical sweep to the north- 

 ward, enclosing a good expanse of tolerably level ground around the 

 village of Kunti. On the other side of the river, the Pechko comes 

 through a deep ravine from a glacier, under Gyiie Dhura, by which 



