1848.] Narrative of a Journey to Cho Lagan, fyc. 179 



16,844 feet (Calcutta Gleanings of Science, April 1829), which appears 

 to me rather in excess. 



Lipii-Lekh, like most of the other passes, does not command any ex- 

 tensive prospect ; I saw nothing but low ugly looking snowy ridges on 

 all sides, a partial glimpse of Gurla, and a spur of bare hills down be- 

 low in the direction of Takhlakhar. 



"We met with several cut Pine trees near the top of the pass, in pro- 

 cess of transport from Byans to Pruang. Wood, both for carpentry and 

 fuel is an article of regular traffic this way ; for Pruang, the upper part 

 of it at least, is utterly destitute of trees ; as far as I could see down to 

 Taklakhar the vegetation was of the scantiest sort, even Dama bushes 

 being rather scarce. 



The descent down the south-west side of Lipu was long but not 

 steep, and I found much the samequantity of snowasonthe north-east side. 

 The road fairly made or naturally good, follows the right bank of the Kali, 

 which rises in water courses under the pass. The spot marked on the 

 map "Mandarin's Camp," I suppose to be the delta of level ground 

 at the entrance of a ravine, with a stream coming from the eastward, 

 which opens through the left side of the main valley three or four miles 

 below the top of the pass ; this ravine had a wide level bottom near a 

 mile long, terminated rather suddenly by steep snow-topped mountains, 

 said to be impassable : its elevation, according to Webb's map, is 14,- 

 506 feet ; there is no vegetation here except grass and small herbs. 

 The origin of the absurd name " Mandarin's Camp," may have been 

 in the circumstance of a former Zungpun of Pruang having come here 

 to visit Captain Webb, when that officer was surveying in Byans (in 

 1816?) Deba Phundu, the Pruang Zungpun who was relieved last year 

 (1845) was the son of Captain Webb's visitor, and then a mere boy, 

 accompanied his father on this occasion. He appeared to have derived 

 a favourable impression from the interview, or the present of a fowling 

 piece which terminated it, and when last in Pruang, in the office for- 

 merly held by his father, is said to have expressed his desire to renew 

 the intercourse with any English gentleman who might visit Byans. It 

 is well for himself that he had not an opportunity of doing so, for any 

 proceeding of the sort if known to his superiors would certainly have 

 lost him his " Zung" at the very least. 



