SPITI VALLEY, &c. 241 



At the villages of Chanoo and Slndllcar, twenty miles up the stream, 

 the banks exhibit horizontal strata of water-worn pebbles, loam, marl, 

 and finely attrited sand, with occasional imperfect traces of fossil exuviee 

 at heights from one to two thousand feet above the river's bed, or eleven 

 to twelve thousand above the sea. The channel continues sharp, but is 

 here little hampered by rocks. The mountains of a gravelly structure, 

 rising out of the dell on each side to the verge of twenty-two thousand 

 feet, are almost bare in summer, the marginal snow resting close to 

 their tops in a narrow but well defined belt. At the fortified rock of 

 DdnJtar, the bottom of the valley attains its maximum expanse, which is 

 here flat, sandy, and intersected by the stream : the mountains, forming a 

 steep rugged boundary on each side, are indented by water courses, 

 which, descending abruptly from the snow, swell the river to nearly the 

 size of the Satlej. Villages and cultivation are thinly sprinkled along the 

 banks. In summer, the climate is mild and even sultry, notwithstanding 

 the great elevation of the soil, and dense crops of wheat, barley and pease 

 ripen in August and September. The winters are proportionally rigorous, 

 but the sun's rays are always extremely ardent, and when the ground is 

 sheeted in snow the reflected glare is intolerable to the eyes. 



The forks of the river arc near tlie village of Lossur, the last inhabited 

 spot in the dell where the stream has an actual elevation approaching 

 to thirteen thousand four Inuidred feet, winding with a slow declivity 

 in a broad pebbly bed round the feet of the mountains, here presenting 

 an almost mural scarj) to ilicir near summits, wliich are llal or sliuhtly 

 inclined, but the ravine continues beyond Lossur, and receives the 

 remotest feeders from the recesses of tlu; J^dra/dssa. whirhis ]\vvc the 

 limit of the plane, and L;,ives a iiorlliw ard slojx' [o ilic \\ at(M-s in the Di iuin 

 of the Chi'inah. The valley of" SpU'i is thus compuhtMulcd bctviceii 

 the heads of that ri\('r in latilndr about '.VA" . and llic Sulh i i'l ■>1'' '•'>'■ 

 The course is souili cast, llanlvcd b} snow)- mounlauis uu one side and the 



