358 COURSE AND LEVELS 



ever may have derived some of its sombre coloring" from the cheerless na- 

 ture of the day, I could not avoid contrasting with the picturesque and 

 cultivated valley of the Baspa. 



Our next march was to Piiari, the patrimonial village of Fikam Das, the 

 Wazir, as the mountaineers style him, of the Raja of Bissahir. It is situa- 

 ted in the bed of the Setlej to which the path gradually descends, not how- 

 ever without passing some very frightful places in which you overlook the 

 river from a height of 4000 feet, the bank or mountain side appearing of a 

 wall-like steepness. These places are all made more secure by the erec- 

 tion of a parapet to conceal from the passenger the naked and frightful depth 

 of the precipice, which without such a cover would be sufficient to shake 

 the steadiest nerves. We passed through Baring, a large village, in which 

 we were agreeably surprized to see luxuriant vineyards ; we found the 



grapes of an excellent quality and still better at Piiari, and there is no 



r 



doubt that from such fruit a very good wine might be made. Indeed, a 

 fermented liquor is manufactured by these people from their grapes, but in 

 such a rude way and by so uncleanly a process, as to bear little resemblance 

 to wine, either in flavor, color, or transparency: they distil a spirit from 

 the husks and stalks. The wild grape was met with to-day ; it is said to be 

 Qommon. 



At Piiari, the Setlej is comparatively smooth and placid, and has a 

 considerable width. There was formerly a bridge across it, similar to that 

 at Wandipur in Tibet of which Captain Turner gives a view in his work. 

 At present only the abutting or end pieces remain, but it was intended to 

 1 repair it. The village contains about twenty or thirty houses of two to four 

 stories, chiefly built of pine wood. There is a tolerable piece of level ground 

 which is well cultivated ; it is covered with vines and corn, besides some 

 fields of excellent turnips, a vegetable which has attained perfection in 

 Kanawer. The elevation of this village was found to be 6008 feet above the 

 level of the sea, and the river is not more than 200 feet below it. The dis- 



