622 Notes upon a Tour in the SikJcim Himalayah Mountains. [No. 7. 



August V&th, 1852. Leaving our tents, baggage and people at 

 the encampment we ascended the loose rocky ridge to the north of 

 us, the summit of which, 14,500 feet, we reached in half an hour ; the 

 sight that met our gaze from the top was a scene of grandeur I had 

 never expected to see. The whole of the snowy mountains seen from 

 Darjeeling were close to us, Kubra, 24,004 feet in height, appeared 

 hanging over us although two and a half miles distant, but all pro- 

 gress northward was completely cut off, we were on the edge of a 

 precipice many thousands of feet deep, at the bottom of which was 

 a narrow valley running east and west with a handsome lake to the 

 east, the water from which runs round the foot of Gubroo and falls 

 into the Eatong. Across this valley a small ledge of rocks connects 

 the semi-circular ridge of Gubroo with the foot of Kubra. Three 

 similar chasms all running south-east, north-west, separated us from 

 the perpetual snow on Kubra. The sides of the chasms are com- 

 posed of a dark slaty rock, containing much hornblende, the sides 

 being too precipitous to allow snow to rest upon them. The first 

 and second ridges had no snow on them, the third had patches only 

 of snow, the fourth was covered with perpetual snow, one and a half 

 mile distant from us. These ridges are buttresses, descending from 

 Kubra and terminate in the Eatong valley. 



The Thermometer stood at 34° ; the air was quite clear and bracing, 

 allowing us a free view of the plains, Darjeeling, Nepal, the eastern 

 snowy range, and of the giant peaks to the north of us. No aid 

 from a telescope was required to show me that the whole of the large 

 snow-covered mountains, Kunchinjinga, Pundeem, Kubra and Junnoo 

 are composed of a finely stratified rock to their very summits. By 

 the aid of a telescope, the stratification of Kunchinjinga was very 

 distinct, both in the large naked spot, now only ten and a half miles 

 distant, and mentioned in the first page of my diary as having been 

 caused by the earthquake of May, as well as at the very summit 

 which is not covered with snow, but with a pellicle of ice, snow only 

 resting upon the ledges and peaks. The strata, which are very small 

 and minute, dip to the north-east about 20°, all the large peaks pre- 

 sented the same appearance. The rocks of the Gubroo range are 

 composed of a hard flinty parallel gneiss intermixed with much 

 black or blue hornblende and micaceous slate, the gneiss every- 

 where splitting into very thin laminae as thin as roofing slates. 



