502 JVotes of a trip from Simla to the Spiti Valley. [No. 5, 
]y imposed on hitherto as to the price of flour, and that every Euro¬ 
pean not^ fool, in Ladak, insisted on having sixty seers of flour 
for the rupee, a statement regarding which I had doubts, notwith¬ 
standing the local knowledge of my informant. He informed me 
that he was Lt. Melville, attached to the Grand Trigonometrical 
Survey in Kashmir, and eventually accepted the loan of a small sum 
of money, as his own funds were barely adequate to carry him into 
Simla. On my return to Simla, however, I discovered that I had been 
swindled, (alas for the frank Saxon physiognomy of my friend) and 
Lt. Melville (verus), to whom I wrote, was able to give me some 
particulars regarding the gentleman who had thus honoured him by 
assuming his name. He turned out to be a man who had been 
recently turned out of the Grand Trigonometrical Survey for disrepu¬ 
table practices, and who also, I believe, so conducted himself in Simla 
as to give the trades-people there a higher opinion of his talents and 
impudence than of his honesty. To punish the European swindler, 
however, who exercises his talents in the Upper Provinces is, in 
the present state of the law and the practical difficulties and expense 
attending a prosecution at the Presidency, one thousand miles away, 
far from easy. 
3 rcl, Camp .—Northern foot of the Manirang pass, 15273 # feet 
(Sopana of the Maps.) The ascent of the pass is very steep and 
extremely laborious, from the heaps of loose debris one is forced to 
climb over. The labour of climbing over this sort of ground at this 
height was so severe, that in one or two places I thought I should 
have fainted from sheer exhaustion, and once or twice rocks and 
mountains seemed to swim round, so that I was forced to throw my¬ 
self on m} r back to avoid falling over the steep rocks I was at the 
time ascending, the result of which would have been an abrupt termi¬ 
nation to my journey and life. On gaining the snow bed near the 
summit, the path was much easier, though the snow was rather slip¬ 
pery, and there were a few crevasses to be avoided. The summit of 
the pass is but a little under 19000 ft. (18889^) and the descent lies 
over a glacier much liner and larger than that on the south side. Both 
myself and servants all got severe headaches, but strange to say not till 
we had effected a considerable descent from the top of the pass: they 
remained all that evening, but left no traces the next morning. Spirits 
I believe only aggravate the headaches, and I contented myself after my 
