bridge of ice. Three miles below Karbu, the granite,
which had been the rock ever since entering Dras, was
replaced by a peculiar slate, apparently magnesian, and
perhaps hornblende slate, passing into or containing beds
of a coarse sandstone.
At Karbu, where I was detained a day, the Thannadar
not having expected me so soon, and my porters not
being ready, the weather was very unsettled, and in the
evening, and during the nights of the 8th and 9th of
April, there was a good deal of rain, especially on the
9th. The wind during the storm was very irregular in
direction. The ground was still covered to the depth of
more than a foot with snow. The morning of the 10th
was gloomy, but as the day advanced the clouds broke,
and the afternoon was bright and beautiful, with a gentle
air down the valley.
On the 11th of April I reached the fort of Dras. For
the last ten miles the snow lay continuously, and two or
three feet deep, but there was always a clear path. The
temperature being much above the freezing-point, the
thaw proceeded rapidly. A good deal of Prangos, which
is evidently a common wild plant (as it is also in many
parts of Kashmir), was seen; the withered inflorescence
projecting through the snow. I observed it also very
abundantly in the hay, which is preserved in the villages,
and seems to consist of all the plants of the meadows
cut indiscriminately, and not of Prangos alone, as I had
erroneously imagined.
My former journey having terminated at Dras, the road
in advance was new to me; but the whole country being
still covered with snow, I could see little of the nature
of the surface. The fort of Dras is about 10,000
feet above the sea: it is situated in an open, nearly
level plain of some width, skirted by low hills. The
higher mountains, which are several miles distant on
both sides, are very steep. Several villages are scattered
over the plain, at some distance from the fort, which
stands alone, on the bank of a little stream, just before
it joins the Dras river. Beyond Dras, the road to the
pass having scarcely been used, there was no beaten
path. In the morning the snow was hard and firm, and
even in the afternoon, notwithstanding the warmth of
the midday sun, the foot did not sink more than three
or four inches. The depth of snow increased rapidly as
I advanced. Two miles above the fort the plain contracts
into a narrow valley, and the channel of the river
becomes very rocky; the stream is also very rapid,
and the slope of its bed evidently considerable. The
valley again expands around the village of Pain Dras.
Immediately beyond this I crossed the river on a bridge
of snow, at least forty feet thick, which covered the
river for more than a hundred yards. This snow-bed,
which was continuous with the general level of the surface,
was to all appearance quite solid. After a march
of ten miles 1 encamped at Maten, the last village of
Dras, a small group of stone huts half a mile from the
river on its eastern bank, and immediately at the base
of a very steep scarped mountain, which rises in precipices
several thousand feet above the village. Maten I
estimated, from the boiling-point of water, to be 10,700
feet above the sea.
On the 18th of April I crossed the pass into Kashmir,