SPITI VALLEY, &c. 



275 



a solitary peak,) there is ample room to confirm their rivalry over the 

 southward Himdlaija.* 



The snowy chain, west of the Ganges, is crossed at elevations of between 

 fifteen and seventeen thousand feet, and rarely the latter. At the sources 

 of the Hyphasis in Kiilu, the depression of the Himalaya, at the pass of 

 Rotang, is as low as thirteen thousand feet, but the northern ramifica- 

 tions of the chain are traversed in an ascending series in that of the 

 Paralassa and Laitclie, long ridges, respectively sixteen thousand five 

 hundred and seventeen thousand feet; a third which formed my nearest 

 appulse to Laddk, was approached by a valley itself elevated sixteen 

 thousand feet, and from the steepness of the slope in its winding course 

 beyond my position, I concluded the pass in the range to border upon 

 eighteen thousand feet. The contiguous peaks, at a far higher level, 

 were perfectly black in the middle of September,— but before reaching 

 Laddk, another range, the Parang La, is crossed, which being sheeted in 

 snow, and the passage expressly described as attended with laborious 

 respiration, debility, and the usual efiects of a highly rarified atmosphere, 

 we may infer to be still more lofty. t This chain runs upon the limit of 

 the /w<?M5,and is no doubt continuous with the line of cliffs already noticed, 

 which appears to stretch away uninterruptedly to the forks of the river 

 near Mansarovara. Pursuing the analogy, by going eastward, the passes to 



* This measurement excludes the still loftier limits which liave been assigned to Dhawalgiri, 

 Chamaldri, and other peaks in the south-eastern quarter of the chain which have not afforded the 

 same advantages of verification, and may still be considered as desiderata. A few others have 

 indeed been determined at twenty-three and twenty-four thousand feet, but even those detached 

 points can scarcely be taken as a measure of the magnitude of the range as compared with the vaster 

 continuity of the interior ridges of the table land. 



f There is some uncertainty whether this range of mountains is crossed by the route I followed, 

 but it exists and is represented as a very formidable barrier. My nearest appulse to Leh, the capital, 

 appears to have been still five days' journey distant, which allows ample space for the intervention 

 of the snowy ridge oi Parang Ld, 



