374 COURSE AND LEVELS 



tion tlie view was open for fifteen or twenty miles, to which distance the 

 Setlej was visible. No villages however " embosomed soft in trees," were 

 there; no forests, not even a bush, broke the uniformity of the bare and 

 brown acclivity which rose from the water's edge to heights of 18 and 

 19,000 feet. To the norlh was the high peak Purkyul, belonging to the 

 ridge which separates the two branches of the Setlej. Here all was rock, 

 bare and steep precipices, with very little snow. This high ground, as far 

 as we could judge, continued up to the north, so that we saw it endwise, 

 and consequently only one or two peaks belonging to it. The village, con- 

 sisting of six scattered hamlets, is spread out on the flat declivity of the 

 first noticed ridge, which, from the top to the very bottom, appears to be 

 but one uniform scene of rocky barrenness, except where the industry of 

 these people has fixed a few hardy productions, and, with not a little labor, 

 brought some level patches into cultivation. A hedge of gooseberry bush- 

 es surrounded the fields in which we were encamped. A row of willows 

 or oziers, which in the day afforded shade to our followers, were the only 

 trees. In front of our tents ran a clear and rapid rivulet, at which might be 

 seen drinking the bushy-tailed yak; at our door lay a flock of Tartar sheep, 

 unrivalled for size and beauty as for fineness of wool. The shawl goat al- 

 so was there, and the Tartar dog, having like the goat a fine wool under his 

 coat of hair. The picture was completed by an assemblage of Hindustanis, 

 Kanawaris, and Tartars, seated in groups; the contrast of whose dresses. 

 was scarcely less striking than that of their features and of their speech. 



On enquiring into the truth of the report of orders having arrived to con- 

 duct us to Garu, it proved (as I had conjectured) to have no foundati- 

 on ; the people were however very civil, and the Seyana offered us a Nez- 

 zer of one day's provisions for all our followers. He agreed at the same 

 tjme to furnish as much more as we might require at a reasonable rate : 

 firewood, (which we supposed would prove a great difficulty,) was also fur- 

 nished in abundance. When however we talked on the subject of our being 

 allowed to proceed onward, they expressed great unwillingness to admit it; 



