472 Journal of a trip in the SiJclcim Himalaya. [No. 5, 
angular, and free from gravel. The loose manner in which these were 
massed together, rendered walking both difficult and dangerous, par¬ 
ticularly to parties in the rear, from the tendency of the stones to 
roll down the steep sides. Proceeding onwards, the glacier presented 
a perfect wilderness of blocks of ice invariably covered with the 
stones and debris brought down from the mountain above by ava¬ 
lanches, with deep crevasses through which the sound of running water 
was heard, the whole presenting a stony and undulating mass about 
one and a half miles long and a half to one quarter of a mile broad. 
In order to ascertain as nearly as possible what might be the thick¬ 
ness of the glacier, we ascended by a separate spur of Pundeem to a 
level with the top of the glacier, and measuring the height by boiling 
water found it to be 16,060 feet, and again measuring the height at 
the foot found it 13,760 feet, thus giving a difference between the 
summit and the base of 2,300 feet. I was able to make a rapid 
sketch of a vertical section of a precipice on the western shoulder 
of Pundeem, shewing its formation to be of gneiss, similar to that 
found on the glacier of which I brought away some good specimens. 
Although the surrounding hills were literally covered with glaciers 
of sizes, and the valleys overhung with masses of ice and snow, 
we observed only one avalanche, but frequent loud cracking of the ice 
during the hottest part of the day. 
A little way up the valley, beyond where the glaciers meet, we 
observed a small lake. Only one small stream falls into it, and this 
must be considered the source of the Patong during the winter 
months. Dr. Simpson here took some interesting photographic 
views. We returned to our hut late in the evening. To-day our 
Lepcha cook whom we brought from Darjeeling failing to give satis¬ 
faction was removed from office. Thus the cooking operations devolved 
upon ourselves; but this was not felt to be irksome, as we had from 
the beginning taken turn about to look after the messing for the 
day, knead the flour for making chupattees, or unleavened cakes, 
assist in cooking, &c., our ci-devant cook knowing nothing of the 
mysteries of his profession beyond lighting a fire, boiling water, 
washing plates and so forth. In fact he was an impostor. 
Another cloudless morning after an intensely cold night. Ther. 
mometer at sunrise 11° . The coolies having laid in a good store ol 
wood overnight, next day we were enabled to cook an early breakfast’ 
