Letter from the Himmalaya. 
109 
It is scarcely necessary to add a word to the above clear detail. _ The expense of 
the operation, including the requisite pipes, &c. did not amount to Sicca Rupees 800, 
and the subsequent charge for cleaning the ship was about 100. A complete appara- 
tus to be attached to the boiler, it appears would not cost above Sa. Rs. 1500, after 
which the expense would be confined to the expenditure of the coals, and the neces- 
sary artificer; and contingent charges. One precaution, however, would appear to be 
necessary to be adopted in the steam vessel, which is, to take care that none of the 
vermin find their way from the vessel steamed to the steamer. Such appears to have 
been the case with the Irrawaddy. 
VII. — Letter from a Correspondent in the Himmalaya. 
I am only lately arrived from a trip through the old tract, viz. Kunawar, 
which I had hoped would reward me with some consoling recompence for the sacri- 
fice I made for its accomplishment; but 1 tailed entirely in my object of establishing 
the vaccine, owing to the folly and timidity of tiie Besalier Rajah. However, I have 
obtained some particulars in' my journey, which, if not equivalent to the pecuniary 
losses I suffered, arc at least interesting. The fossils and shells which occurred in 
my route are very strange objects. They are chiefly valuable from having myself seen 
them in situ. Thcv comprise cockles, muscles, and pearl fish, univalves, and long 
cylindrical productions which are most singular objects. I found them lying upon 
the hio-h land at 15,500 feet, in a bed of granite and pulverized slate ; the adjacent 
rocks being at the same time of shell limestone. All the shell.-, are turned into 
carbonate of lime*, and raanv are crystallized like marble. I came upon a village 
at a height of 14,700 feet are you not surprised that human beings could 
exist at such an elevation ? It was yet the middle ol October, and the thermo- 
meter on two mornings was 17 : what it is at i/tis season of the year, I cannot guess ; 
yet the suns, ray’s felt oppressive, and all the streams and lakes which were sheeted 
with ice during the night, were free and running by 2 o clock. The fines, crops of 
barley are reared here, and to irrigation and solar heat are the people indebted lor a 
crop. The barometer gave for the highest field 14,900 feet of elevation ; this verifies 
the observations, or rather inferences, on the limit of cultivation m the upper course 
of the Sutluj; and I think it quite possible, and even probable, that crops may vege- 
tate at 16 and 1 7,000 ft. The yaks and shawl goats at this village seemed finer than 
at any other spot within my observation. In fact, both men and animals. appear to 
live on and thrive luxuriantly, in spite pf Quarterly Reviewers, and Professor Buck- 
land, who hadcalmly consigned those lofty regions, and thcrae myriads oi living hemgs 
to perpetual ice and oblivion. What would have become of the beautiful shawl = oats 
which furnish those superb tissues, that adorn the ivory ^Wers or our ferr 
countrywomen, had the Professor and the Quarterlythe management of these matters 
th On°the North Eastern frontier of Kundwar, close to the stone 
height of more than 20,000 feet, without crossing snow, the barometer showing 14 ,3 , 
thermometer 27 at 1 p. M+. Notwithstanding this elevation, I felt °PP™ ! >*ed 5l *“ * 
rays, though the air in the shade was freezing The view trom 
and terrific beyond the power of language to describe. I ^ £ 
China itself, but I only beheld its lofty frontier all and, a “ 4 >re, ^detmlate ? T* 
was a line of naked peaks, scarce a stripe of snow appearing ; >« t e 'f r > To" 
angle of altitude of a few minutes, some halt a degree, and at a very considerable 
distance: this anrues at least 21,000 feet. et 
1 found Chinese guards stationed at all the passes, partly m consequence of Lord 
Amherst's visit to Simla, butchjefly on account of some Mandarines from China itself, 
who were moving slowly along the table land, and taxing the whole countty. They 
have been settling the affairs of Ludak, and I fancy not much to the advantage ot the 
Rajah who sought their advice. At Dankur, I had a most friendly intemevv vvitli 
the Ludak Wuzcer, who gave me a dinner, accompanied by buttered tea in the I artar 
* All shells are composed of carbonate of lime, principally In the c^fe of the 
porcellanous division, it is combined with a little, and in that of the mo 
pearl shells, with about one-fourth, of animal matter. Ed. . , ; 
t The date is not mentioned. Using the mean result for October observed i» 
Calcutta, this gives 20,419 ft. as the elevation. £d. 
