68 
Mr. Fraser on the Himalay Mountains . 
quartz in various shapes ; much limestone too was found, hard and 
compact in substance, generally of a grey colour with more or less 
tendency to blue, and veined with white in laminse ; when the rock 
was formed of this it sometimes exhibited a red varied appearance 
externally, but the fracture was of a grey white; it very often lay 
in strata, dipping more or less, but irregularly, and the direction 
could not be ascertained ; the edges of these strata, frequently pro- 
jected from the hill side. 
Of both these stones, specimens accompany this. We also found 
some of the semitransparent stone mentioned before as being con- 
fined to the heights of lofty peaks. This region of limestone was 
certainly the continuation of that forming the lofty mountain early 
spoken of. 
At Jumnotree, the source of the river Jumna, another opportunity 
presented itself of viewing the Himalay peaks with the advantage of 
close vicinity. Along the banks of that river, in its progress from 
the lofty mountain where it originates, we observed the same suc- 
cession of rock as has been detailed above ; we detected the vein of 
limestone thus far to the eastward, and then fell into schist and quartz, 
till we reached the stupendous Jumnotree, which rises in two grand 
peaks, deeply covered on the south-east and south with perpetual 
snow, but pointing a precipitous rocky face towards the north-west. 
We followed the river, now diminished to a rapid mountain torrent 
into the bowels of the mountain whence it arises from a vast number 
pf small rills flowing from the snow, which are collected in a pool 
at the bottom of a steep slope, so that we reached its very origin, 
and had proof that the rocks of its channel were the genuine pro- 
duce of the place, or of its close vicinity ; we found here nearly 
every sort of rock which was observed throughout our tour; two 
sorts predominated, — that hard grey striated stone first discovered in 
