66 Mr. Fraser on the Himalay Mountains, 
found varieties apparently of the same sort, which were certainly 
not marble. On the lofty ridges we now traversed, and under the 
still loftier peaks that overhung us, we frequently lost schist alto- 
gether, and found ourselves amid a sort of stone that possessed a 
semitransparence similar to that of quartz, but which broke perfectly 
irregularly, was very hard, exhibiting in its fracture a quantity of 
white shining particles. It was of all colours, grey, blueish grey, 
red, yellow, and much of a greenish hue. This rock was confined 
to heights. We lost it the moment we declined into the vallies. 
The bed of the river Sutlej, over which the peaks formed of the 
rock last mentioned rose, exhibited only that various, heterogeneous 
and undecisive congregation of rocks and stones which usually occu- 
pies the bed of a large river which flows with much rapidity through 
a mountainous country, and swelled by many subsidiary streams 
that yield their tribute of rocks from their parent mountains, as well 
as of water. The water of the river was here loaded with a fine 
white shining sand, that was kept suspended by the turbulence of the 
stream, rendering it turbid, and giving to it at a distance a hue of a 
light dirty green : this sand was produced by the attrition of the 
various light coloured rocks it passed through in its course, and 
were deposited along its bed ; but the native channel here was of 
schist as usual, and the varieties of colour and consistence were very 
great. 
We penetrated along the glen of the river Sutlej and on the cliffs 
forming its sides, till we reached the heart of the snowy mountains, 
the peaks of which rose round us on all sides, and we had here a 
good opportunity to confirm the observations which we had con- 
stantly made while viewing them at a distance. The precipitous 
faces pointed always to the north and north-west, save when acci- 
dental causes broke the face of a hill differently exposed. All the 
