512 
Notes of a trip from Simla to the Spiti Valley. [No. 5, 
I 
lines, to which the animals are one by one fastened by means of a 
loop and button they carry on their necks, the goats and sheep being 
tethered separately. It was pleasing to observe the docility of these 
animals and the readiness with which they allowed themselves to be 
tied up. Each of them, on being secured, lay down and was fast 
asleep before a second had been well secured to the next place on the 
rope, so that in a surprisingly short space the noise and animation 
produced bj r the return of this large flock was exchanged for the 
most perfect stillness. The encampment was protected from the 
wind by the bags of borax piled into a low wall, and guarded by 
several line but savage mastiffs. By day-break the whole flock was 
once more in motion with its freight towards Spiti. 
12 tli, Camp at the foot of the Farang pass, at 16,448 ft.—Cross the 
Parilanghi river, and shortly afterwards ascend the camping ground, 
a bleak bare valley without the smallest shrub on the bare rocks. 
The coolies having brought up little or no fuel, all passed an uncom¬ 
fortable night, a high wind often howling up the pass with occasion¬ 
al sleet, and the only fuel procurable being a little dried ass’s dung 
scattered along the road. Another large flock of goats with borax 
passed in the afternoon en route to Spiti and Kulu. 
Ydth, Camp , east hank of the Fcirct river, north of the pass, at 16,1G3 ft. 
—The ascent to the pass is steep but far from difficult; a little snow 
is met with in hollows and sheltered places, but the road is free of 
snow to the summit. The crest of the pass is a rocky ridge of vertical 
limestone strata, forming a gap between high snowy peaks on either 
hand. From this rocky ridge one steps off on to a fine glacier, which 
is seen filling up the valley beneath, and which is mainly augmented 
by the gradual descent of lateral glaciers and ice from the high snowy 
peaks to the west. Few crevasses exist in this glacier, and the de¬ 
scent over it is gradual and easy, though there are some awkward bits 
of road just after quitting it, where the ground is very steep and 
the road creeps along the chasm that yawns between the mountain 
side on one hand and the glacier on the other, and which is produced 
by the melting of the glacier in contact with the dark warm rocks of 
the valley. The summit of the pass I determined by a subsequent 
observation to be 19,132, it. which 1 believe to be very nearly correct, 
though Cunningham makes it only 18,502 ft. This 
630 ft. is the more remarkable as three heights in the 
difference of 
Spiti valley 
