3-j6 INTRODUCTORY NOTE by the PRESIDENT. 



of the Nepalefe befet them on their return, and undeterred by hard- 

 fliips and privations, and in Mr. MooRCROFT'sinftance by frequent illnefs, 

 has in the refult not only accomplifhed the primary object which was 

 in view, but has brought an intefeffing acceffion of knowledge of a 

 country never before explored : and has afcertained the exi Hence, and 

 approximately determined the fituation oiMdnafaro'vara, verifying at the 

 fame time the facl; that it gives origin neither to the Ganges, nor to any 

 other of the rivers. reputed to flow from it, Mr* IVfpo$ croft, as will 

 be feen, found reafon to believe that* the lake has no outlet. His 

 flay, however, was too fhort to allow of his making a complete circuit of 

 it: and adverting to the difficulty -of conceiving the evaporation of 

 the lake's furface in fo cold a climate to be equivalent to the influx of 

 water in the feafon of thaw from the furrounding mountains, it may 

 be conjectured, that, although no river run from it, nor any outlet ap- 

 pear at the level at which it was feenby Mr. Moorcroft, it may have 

 fome drain of its fuperfluous waters, when more fwoln, and at its 

 greater! elevation, and may then perhaps communicate with Rdwan 

 lake, (in which the Setlej takes its fource) conformably with the oral 

 information received by our travellers. 



The journal of the entire route from their departure from the Bri~., 

 tijh frontier in Rohilkhand, to their return, being more copious than 

 would con fi ft with the limits of the volume .of our refearches, I have 

 ufed the liberty of feleclion, which Mr. Moqrcrof't has liberally al- 

 lowed, and confined the extra 61 of the journal to that part of the route 

 which is wholly novel; at the fame time curtailing the narrative, though 

 with regret for the unavoidable exclufion of many interefling paffages. 

 It is proper, hpwever, to obferve,, that no other freedom has been ufed? 

 and that the 'narrator's own words are fcrupulouliy retained, 



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