SPITI VALLEY, &c. 267 



bases we see tumuli of loam like potter's clay protruding through the 

 black soil. The eternal snow (summer line) here recedes to nearly twenty 

 thousand five hundred feet, on a south western exposure, the bottom of the 

 valley being itself ten thousand feet above the sea, but the effect of solar 

 radiation in this arid concave modifies a clim.ate, which, in insulated 

 elevation would be unproductive of grain, to a temperature capable of 

 rearing consecutive crops in the proper season. 



Upwards from SheeaUcar, the river has a slower acclivity. The 

 marginal rocks crumbling at their surface terminate in smooth slopes of 

 finely comminuted matter, and finally in steep dead sand, which repels 

 both vegetation and snow, till near DdnJcar, where the valley making a 

 sharp flexure, resumes its natural direction, deriving a new feature from 

 the transition of tiie rocks which now mark the fossil district, and open 

 out at their base to a flat pebbly expanse of three furlongs. 



The scene now begins to wear a desolate grandeur; every object is 

 arid, the parched and thirsty soil ceases to shew a glimpse of verdure. 

 The river winds its course in streamlets through a bed of sand and pebbles. 

 The section of the rock being very steep exposes the stratification, Avhich is 

 here slightly inclined from the horizon. DdnJcar itself is perched upon a 

 projecting ledge of conglomerate limestone, rising out of the valley in 

 steep indurated masses, which the erosion of time has filed into slender 

 spires and the percolation of snow eaten away at their bases till they 

 present a groupc of tuirets and ravines almost deceiving the senses by 

 the effect of natural agents. These lofty piles have a compact solidity 

 which resists the hammer. Tlicir sides arc often scooped into places of 

 abode, and the natural excavations are taken possession of by monks 

 and a vagrant priesthood, detaching themselves from llic rest of 

 the world like the Druids of old, arc to be seen peeping out from their 

 isolated niches. 



