42Q A JOURNEY TO LAKE 



fllky grafs Ipringing out of this cleft, and a woolley plant like that com- 

 monly called £< everlalting," perhaps a kind of dittany. A fnowy 

 peak in front The road lies over a plain of great length but not of above 

 feven cos in breadth, and confiding of many levels or fteps broken by 

 deep ravines, the edges of fame of which are as level as if executed by 

 art. On the fouth, the plain is bounded by the lad Himalaya ridge jud 

 tipped with fnow in ftripeslike foot paths, extending along the windings 

 of the ridges : on the north, by the Cailas mountains, the fummits of 

 which are marked more didinctly with fnow, and the bafes of 

 which defcend to the level of the plain by eafy Hopes and diminifhing 

 f wells, forming a fueceffion of fleps feparated from each other in the 

 length of the plain by bread-works of- broken ground. Behind, the 

 mountains. feem to meet in ' an angle near Mahddiva ka Ling; but 

 the plain feems to expand before us till it is fhut in by Itupendous 

 mountains, whofe fides, as well as craggy fummits, are apparently 

 very thickly covered with fnow* To the left or rather to the S. 

 W. are the mountains of Bafchar. At the didan^e of about two 

 miles, a little to the W. of N. is a mod extraordinary face of broken 

 ground. This reprefents pyramids in fome places joining their 

 tops but feparate at their bafes, in others, feparate at their tops but 

 cludered at their foundations: buttrefTes of various proportions and 

 forms ; and no unapt referablances to ruined caflles and fortifications 

 in piles above each other. 



The town of Ddbd is perched upon the top of a rock, which juts out 

 towards the river with an irregular declivity, and is furmOunted by the 

 higheft eminence id the whole line which defends it from the N. W. 

 At ,5306 paces the river clofe below, and a few cultivated fields, which 

 are the fir ft we ■ have Teen in this country: encamp near a rivulet in 

 the town* 



