6 Ornithological Observations in the Sutlej valley, [No. 1, 



As to Reptiles and Fishes, I have not been able to procure any information, 

 but I should think that they are not specifically very different from those of 



W. Tibet. 



The population as compared with the area, is very small, generally 

 pursuing a nomade life. The people belong to the Caucasian race, not 

 to the Malayan ; they generally live during the winter in small villages 

 in the lower and less inhospitable portions of the valley, while in summer 

 they wander with their flocks of sheep and cattle towards the head of the 

 valley, to the higher places of pasture. Some of the tribes have no substantial 

 buildings at all, and live all the year round in black tents (made of the hair 



of the yak). 



Proceeding westwards from the Kunawar frontier, near Shipki, we find 

 that the Sutlej has forced its passage through the principal N. W. Himalayan 

 chain, cutting its bed to a depth of several thousand feet. Former terraces 

 and old gravel beds of the river [and also of its tributaries] are seen, 

 three and four thousand feet above the present level, which descends from 

 about 8,000 feet at Shipki-N. lat. 31°, 58'; E. long. 78°, 40'-to 3,000 

 feet below Kotegurh-N. lat. 31° 24'; long. 77", 3S'.-Within this entire 

 length (amounting to about 160 miles) from Shipki to Suni (N. of Simla) the 

 Sutlej flows in a narrow channel between perpendicular cliffs of gneiss, the 

 width of which seldom exceeds a few hundred feet. The Wangur and 

 the Baspa rivers, both of which are situated within the branches of the 

 central Himalayan chain are the only large tributaries* on the Indian slopes. 

 They are well known to travellers in these parts of the hills as the 

 finest retreats, where a delightful climate combines a beauty of vegetation 

 and an Alpine grandeur of snow fields and glaciers, not easily to be found 

 in other parts of the hills. The highest peaks in the central chain rise on an 

 average somewhat above 22,000 feet, and the limit of snow lies in general at 

 about 17,000 feet, increasing to about 18,500 on the Tibetan slopes. 



In the Sutlej valley itself, only the higher terraces, situated between 6 

 and 9,000 feet, are generally sufficiently large to afford room for cultivation 

 and settlement, the slopes of the mountains being mostly precipitous. 

 The width of the valley is even at those higher elevations merely a few 

 miles. On the whole, its physical conditions are not particularly favorable to 

 agriculture, nor is there much room for a large population. The circumstance, 

 however, that the river has cut its course right across the principal range 

 of the N. W. Himalaya, (without making such a distant circuit, as is done by 

 the Indus on one side and the Brahmaputra on the other) entitles the Sutlej 

 valley to its fame as the principal highway to Central Asia. 



Indeed, following the course of the river from the plains at Eupoor up as 



* The largest tributary is the Spiti river : its valley lias in general rather a Tibetan climate 

 and a corresponding fauna and flora. 



