64 Mr. Fraser on the Himalay Mountains . 
had run in a direction nearly parallel to the course of the great 
mountainous belt. From this point no such regularity was to be 
detected. A very lofty peak, 10,500 feet above the plains, reared 
itself above all others, and from this central point branches of moun- 
tains diverged in all directions that were again connected, after many 
irregular deflections, with the roots of the Himalay ridge, only 
disturbed by the great ravines, in which run the chief draining 
streams that intersect the country. These, when they rise in the 
snowy mountains, invariably commence their course from east-north- 
east to west-south-west, and then at some stubborn rock turn sharp 
to the south-east and continue their course to the plains. 
The whole of this mass of mountains consists almost invariably 
of different sorts of schistus with much mica, and plentifully veined 
with quartz, of which many large rocks and blocks were seen, 
having little or no other stone among it. There were doubtless 
exceptions : we saw at times a sandy granulated stone in masses 
near large ridges, but not of a character that could be mistaken for 
granite. The beds of the torrents, however, exhibited blocks of 
granite that had evidently come from a distance, rounded and 
mutilated by attrition : and there was also a quantity of a blueish- 
grey stone, of great hardness, brought to its present position also 
evidently by the force of the torrent, and evincing no doubt of 
what materials a portion of its early bed consists. But the predomi- 
nating rock was schist with much mica, in all varieties of colour 
and hardness. Twice on the top of lofty mountains we discovered 
sandstone of a coarse gritty nature ; and once we were surprised 
to find the hill face under a very high peak, strewed with gigantic 
masses of a stone formed apparently of sand, mica, quartz, and small 
stones or gravel, united by a sort of white spar, which had the 
appearance at first of great hardness, but in reality was easily broken 
