305 
through the Himalaya Mountains. 
lOth October . — Marched to Dabling, 6| miles. The road was 
pretty good, lying near the river. We went a little out of the 
direct way, to visit the Numptoo Sango, a wooden bridge across 
the Sutluj. The river was here 106 feet broad, and the bridge 
78 feet above the stream, which rushes with rapid violence be- 
tw'een perpendicular rocks of granite. We in vain tried to mea- 
sure its depth : and though we had a heaving-lead for the pur- 
pose, of no less than ten pounds weight, we could not effect it. 
We had practised throwing it the way they do at sea, by swing- 
ing it round the head, and liattered ourselves we were almost as 
expert at the business as the leadsman on board a pilot- schooner ; 
but the force of the current was so great as to sv/eep it down 
long ere it reached the bottom. We found the bed of the river 
8200 feet above the sea. 
11th October . — Marched to Numgeea, 9 miles. The footpath 
was good and even upon the bank of the Sutluj. To-day we left 
the road, to look at the conflux of the Lee with the Sutluj. The 
Lee is a river of considerable breadth, coming from Ludak on 
the northward ; but it is not very deep, and flows in a clear 
stream, with a moderate current ; whilst the Sutluj is muddy, 
and runs with great velocity, and a stunning noise. Since leav- 
ing Pooave, the trees had gradually become more scanty. In 
the vicinity of Numgeea there is little vegetation, the grass and 
thyme are but thinly scattered in small tufts, and a solitary 
dwarf-pine appeal s here and there. 
l^th October . — Marched to Shipke, 9 miles. The road ascend- 
ed a little, and there was a steep descent into the bed of the 
Oopsung. Here the rocks are more rugged than any we had yet 
seen ; they are rent in every direction, piled upon one another 
in wild disorder, in a most extraordinary manner, not to be de- 
scribed, overhanging the path, and threatening destruction to 
the traveller. 
At the pass which separates Koonawur from the Chinese do- 
minions, 13,518 feet above the sea, the scene was entirely 
changed, — a more marked difference can scarcely exist. The 
mountains to the eastward were quite of another nature from 
those we before met with ; they are of granite, broken into gra- 
vel, forming regular slopes, and neither abrupt nor rocky. The 
country in that direction has a most desolate and dreary aspect; 
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