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Akt. II. — Notices respecting’ the Himalaya Mountains^ and the 
Sources of the Jumna and the Ganges^ By James 
Baillie Feaser, Esq. * 
In the first number of our Journal, we were enabled, through 
the kindness of Mr Fraser Tytler, the friend and relation of Mr 
Baillie Fraser, to present our readers with a general notice of 
his interesting journey through part of the Himala Mountains, 
and to the sources of the Jumna and the Ganges. The ex- 
tracts from his manuscript journal, which Mr Tytler read be- 
fore the Boyal Society of Edinburgh, and the magnificent draw- 
ings which he exhibited, of the wildest and most interesting sce- 
nery of that stupendous range of mountains, excited a high de- 
gree of interest, and we are persuaded, that this interest will be 
sustained by the perusal of the work itself. It w'ould be incon- 
sistent with the nature, as well as with the limits of a Philoso- 
phical Journal, to follow Mr Fraser along the line of his route^ 
or to attempt to give even an abstract of his observations on the 
natural history of the country, or on the manners and institu- 
tions of its inhabitants. All that we can pretend to accomplish 
at present, is to select some of those descriptions which are re- 
markable from their novelty, or which belong more immediate- 
ly to the subject of Physical Geography. 
Account of the Ghaut or Pass of Comharsein, 
At the village of Comharsein, in a petty state of the same 
name, which occupies two valleys stretching from the crest of 
the Whartoo Range to the Banks of the Sutlej, there is a sin- 
gular descent to the river, which attracted Mr Fraser’s particu- 
lar notice. 
We found,” says lie, ^ the descent prodigiously steep and 
long, very nearly three miles ; the first part somewhat circui- 
tous, but the last mile was a continued flight of irregular steps, 
rudely constructed from the materials afforded by the mountain. 
These stones are of a very hard quality, composed of quartz, 
* Extracted from the Journal of a Tour through •part of the snowy range of 
the Himala Mountains^ and to the Sources of the liivers Jtmma and Ganges^ By 
James Baiilie Fraser, Esq. Lond. 1820. i Vol, 4to pp. 548. 
