GREAT TRIGONOMETRICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 49 



and iii the Kuti Valley, behind most of the great snow and rain 

 collecting mountains, the weather was seldom fine for more than a 

 couple of hours in the morning. The Byans valley communicates 

 with Tibet by three routes, the principal and earliest open to 

 travellers being called the Lipu Lek pass ; in moderate weather this 

 is a very easy pass. There are seven villages in the valley, all 

 facsimiles of each other, but with the exception of some half-dozen 

 houses built in the style of Swiss chalets, they all are small and low, 

 the building material being furnished by the cedars of the adjoining 

 ranges. The Bhotea inhabitants of these lofty regions are a race 

 of sturdy hiilmen, with no caste prejudices, ready to eat game of 

 all kinds and to drink to any extent. They are principally engaged 

 in agriculture and breeding sheep and goats, and all their clothing is 

 made by hand looms, the wool being procured from their own 

 sheep. "Woollen blankets and plaids of bright colours and scarfs 

 are made by the women, who occasionally act as coolies when there 

 is a lack of men. At Garbia, one of the largest villages of the 

 Byans valley, the Tartar physiognomy is by no means prominent, 

 and some of the faces were expressive and even pretty. Mr. Peyton 

 found the men always faithful to their engagements, and many of 

 them while in attendance on him underwent great hardships, 

 roughing it on the cold mountain tops without shelter of any kind. 

 To Mr. Pocock and Mr. Warwick was allotted the topography of the 

 northern and southern portions, respectively, of the Dharma valley, 

 which runs contiguously to the Byans valley, and in the case of the 

 former the inclemency of the weather was equal to and the altitude 

 even greater than in the Byans valley where Mr. Peyton was 

 occupied. The entrance to the Milam valley is through a stu- 

 pendous gorge overhung by large masses of granite precipices ; 

 the gorge is about 12 miles in length, and the road through it is for 

 the most part a mere series of narrow steps built along the faces of 

 steep hillsides or rugged precipices ; where these steps cannot be 

 made planks leading from one ledge of a precipice to another are laid 

 across. The mountains here are composed of three different kinds 

 of rock, the lowest formation is granite, of which all the most lofty 

 peaks are composed ; the second is hard slate ; and the third and 

 highest is a hard crystallised limestone. At the village of Milam* 

 the valley splits into two ; the one to the west is occupied by an 



* This is the village where the celebrated explorers Nain Singh ami Kishen Singh 

 were both born and brought up. See page 151. 



I Y2039]. D 



