556 Journal in the Bub-Himalaya. 



tion till his eyes are tired : nearly the whole road was through a forest, 

 and on approaching Pungee we descended to a torrent, crossed by a 

 bridge. A pretty steep ascent brought us to the village, and we 



found S in his tent near the temple, which, however, proved to be 



very good quarters, being raised, and having a very comfortable room, 

 fourteen feet by ten, and a balcony in front nearly the same size. A 

 man we sent to Rampore from Chigaon on the 1 9th, with a letter to 

 Gerard, overtook me with the answer on the road to-day, having been 

 six days in performing a journey of above 150 miles. 



26th. Pungee — halted; H not well. This place is situated 



on a declivity, and consists of two villages, one above and the other 

 below, about half a mile asunder. The lower one is largest, and 

 is of itself considerable : in the upper one was our lodging ; they are 

 both filthy. The neighbouring fields are thickly studded with pop- 

 lars and peach trees, and there are some vineyards, which are said to 

 produce very good fruit. The mountains which above the higher 

 village becomes more steep, is covered with a forest of larches and 

 Nyozas to a considerable height, when it concludes in a lofty perpendi- 

 cular narrow rock which forms a singular screen to the rear of the vil- 

 lage. In front (south), are the Raldang mountains, one of the highest 

 peaks of which appears on this to be a perpendicular rock, and, no 

 snow of course lying on this side, you can perceive the thickness of 

 that on the top, which is a level. On the left (east) are mountains 

 apparently still more lofty ; and on the right is a range now covered 

 with snow, but which melts in the hot months. In the month of 

 June, the villagers all proceed to the top of the stupendous crags 

 in rear of the place, where they celebrate a festival which occurs 

 then, and pile up stones, for what purpose I cannot say, on the edge 

 of the precipice, which are visible from the village. There is a 

 Lama here, but we had not the pleasure of seeing him ; and there is, 

 in some places, a kind of large rude urn of stone, plastered and 

 painted, something like tomb-stones, under sheds, put up by the 

 Lama priests, and devoted to some deity with the intention, I believe, 

 of making him propitious to the crops. At Cheenee there are 

 three of these under one shed. We had some slight rain in the 

 evening. After dinner we heard a loud and continued crash of 

 stones falling down the mountain, at a place about three or four 





