The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1820-04-22 00:00:00

HIM.4LAYAH MOUNTAINS.

[From " 774 Calcutta Jarruarl

We Lave the pleasure of laying before our readers a let-
ter from our correspondent in the Ilimalayah, dated in the
latter end of August, awl in continuation of the narrative
consaiNed in his former letter of the 10th of July.
A lola outline descriptiou of Koirtsawser, is banded to as
at his cone time, to be inverted preccdiug the narrative, for
its decides .

Kou►wwur (nt►e or the great divisions of Bu•hs-
burs, which wa• tributary to, but lorVre conquered
by the lira on both sides of the Mutluj,
eaterwl►og twin ht. 31 deg. 27
N. end from long. 78 deg. 5 unit. to 78 deg.
43 min. E. It is a occluded, rugged. and barren
twet►y, seldom elteerihng ten Mlle* m breadth.
It is terminated on the N. sod N.W. by a lofty
claim of meentains, upwards or 40,000 feet high.
covered oath perpattsal mow. which pep:gratis It
from Umiak. a large tract of country stretching
slope the hooks of the lodes to Ceidneer. A smut-
lar range of the Himalaya's, tiesrly equal in height,
bounds it to the south. On the east, a pass above
13.000 feet Irgli divides it 11116411 the Chinese Juan.
piano. and on the west hell part of Buslialiur.
The villages, winch are elevated from 8,000 to
12,000 fret above the sea, are very thinly scattered,
not mute than tato or three Occult im U march,
and sometimes none at ull for t•everal Stages.
In the summer season, flow the reverberation of
the solar rays. the heat in the bed of the river is
oppressive, and quite sufficient to bring to matu-
rity grapes of a delicious flavour, which ore made
into raisins and a spirituous liquor called raids.
Little grann is produced, viol the natives live almost
entirely by their trade iii raisins, rakh, and wool,
which last article is of a superior quality.
The winter is rigorous, and the pastors between
the villagea. which are frequently above 14,000
feet high, lire blocked up by snow for about three
months in tl►e year.
At Nako, the highest village we met with, 11,850
feet by barometer, the thermometer was 18 deg.
below the freezing point at 'maim in the middle
October.

The narrative of the journey, al continued from
the portion us the Jourual of August, is as fol-
lows :

Summer may be said to have closed, and the •p.
',roach of autumn had disper.rd the last clouds
from the hilliest peaks of the Himalaya!). Having
fettled the route of our warn by the low road
along the banks of the Sutluj. we resolved to take
• long farewell of the pool, and accordingly moved
to the foot of the rocky cliff towards it. The birch
again afforded us shelter and comfort; of the green
boughs we constructed a hut, and those that were
decayed we piled into • blazing stock.
Our camp was in the mouth of a valley, two bow
shots ucros., runoiug westward, dividing the rock
of the summits from the grassy ridges; it resem-
bled the forsaken bed of H river, sod but for its
expanse ought be ttrined • rocky defile hemmed
in by the great body of the peak• on one side, staid
sleep mountains, bearing • weakly coat of vegeta.
two, on the other.
During the winter months the dell must be
choked up with ',now, vet none had revi.ted the
summer heat. A few photo shot forth from the
patches of soil that had escaped the river of liquid
snow, which during the rainy season most sweep
down its inclined surface. Many withered loratichea
of trees were found turned and twisted amongst the
jutiihled blocks of quartz, as if by the effect of
water. The extent of the dill is unknown, yet it
can hardly be supposed to stretch acrusa to
Ps►s. _ . .

_
The great buttress of naked rock that supports
the elevated sum ttttt a, has that packet! structure
Mille-wive of vertical stratification, but we were
not elts.e enough to ascertmos it. Above it, and
upon its *hood back, rests the unmeasured snow of
ages, which in sr state of perpetual thawing, forms
torrents; these have worn down passages in the solid
rock, yet of such a rteepnest AS would seem to defy
all attempts to scale them. The continuity of
the line thus broken, has it dark sombre gloom,
like the black ruins of an ancient castle overhaul.
ing an agitated ocean. Our elevation was li,ooo
feet, and some dwarfish trees were stets a few
hus.dred feet higher. Patches of old snow appear..
ed in the hollows of the weather-beaten rocks above
our head., sheering us the region of everlasting
winter; and here and there a bush had fixed its
rout, but beyond that all vegetation ceased. A
small stream which ran past our camp was frozen
over next morning, and the thermometer was 33.
On rising from the valley a general debility was
►eosibly experienced. with a strange affection at the
chest, approaching to anxiety'—a failuri or weakness
iii our limbs, especially the knees, induced a slug-
gishoess of motion, and all this increased with the
altitude. A plant of peculiar aromatic flavour now
appeared wherever there was soil, and formed the
best proportion of the vegetation, and attracted
the. Gum kind's, aho ran loam& it. ‘Ve are trot
aware of its properties or a tb-ets but they dated the
symptoms all isidisposition mat:ells appearance; not
that its effluvia was of deleterious inhalation (for,
' they plucked at up, and adorned their crowns with
it, and we followed their example). but as indicat-
Mg the presence of weeds of noxious influence;
their allusions, perhaps wising directed, sprung
from the truly probable foundation, viz. altitude,
which this plain certainly aimourices, nut having%
Teen ob.erved below 13,00 G feet, and in their opi-
nion points out the Tor of the Bik'h or poison •. •
‘Ve moved upwards at a slow pace, frequently
stooping for the seeds of plants and slime., and
sonic of us were glad to have a pretest 1.. r resting
to disguise the feebleness of our frame brit-re the
hardy Goorklialts. who, too, were not u fade (reset
by the singular qualities of this foreign region.
11'e laboured up the lsrokrii stony track, and now -
some bird., apparently of the heron species. sprung
from the edge of a stream (ibis was a grateful row
mein for a rest) ; they had a long neck mid fi.hw
catching bill ; but I am awe there are no fish here
uuhss they fall from the clouds; they bad a wild
call, which was recognized as sisnilar to the tea.
gull, and they flew tamer heavily to the rocky
ridges whence tole of tile II it faces pursued thesis
mid had a shot, hut to our disappoinitueut the bird
fell somnig.t inaccessible heights.
‘v hell we manse usron the edite of the great snow-

• IL 1:21), Sl:unto IL fv:.ll4iies.