of the pass was nearly level for several hundred yards,
and covered with boulders, principally of granite, but a
few of quartz and of a trappean rock, quite black and
homogeneous. The outline of the mountains was generally
rounded, and they rose gradually in both directions
above the pass, which had an elevation of 18,100 feet.
The view, both towards the direction in which we had
come and that in which we were proceeding, was rather
extensive, but from the prevailing uniformity of outline and
colour it was more striking than beautiful. There were
no trees or villages, no variation of surface greater than
an occasional grey rock, but everywhere the same dreary
sterile uniformity. Nothing could be seen of Lake Chu-
moreri, which lies at least fifteen miles westward, and
is surrounded by mountains, everywhere (except in the
direction of the former outlet) higher than that on which
we stood.
The occurrence of great accumulations of boulders, of
a rock different from that which occurs in situ on the
very summit of the pass, was quite conformable to what
I had observed on some of the passes between Kunawar
and Hangarang. It was not, however, on this account
the less puzzling, nor was it till I crossed the Sassar pass,
in August, 1848, that I could at all conceive in what way
it was to be explained. On this pass, as I shall afterwards
relate in detail, a glacier occupies the crest of the
pass, descending from higher mountains to the north, and
presenting a bluff termination in two directions.
On the summit of the pass I collected specimens of
three phenogamous plants, probably nourished by a recently
melted patch of snow; for though there was none
on the pass itself, nor on the descent on either side,
a steep mountain, half a mile to the right, in a due
northern exposure, was still covered with snow to at
least five hundred feet below the level of the pass. The
small quantity of snow seen in the distant view was very
remarkable, and the more so as there was no indication
of diminished elevationj ridge rising beyond ridge, and
peak behind peak, to the utmost limits of view. The
three plants which were observed were a little Arenaria
or Stellaria, and two Cruciferous plants, one of which
only was in fruit. A red lichen, the same as that seen
on the Parang pass, covered the stones.
The descent from the Lanak pass was at first gentle,
but very soon became steep, to the bottom of a valley in
which a small stream of water was running, derived, I
suppose, from some small snow-beds in a lateral ravine
out of sight, for it almost immediately disappeared under
the gravel. Soon after leaving the crest of the pass, we
came upon clay-slate rock finely laminated, and dipping
south-south-west at a high angle. The valley by which
we descended gradually contracted into a rocky ravine,
at last very narrow, with high precipitous walls, and full
of large boulders. We encamped for the night at its
junction with a large stream descending in a rocky dell
from the west. Around our camp, on both sides of the
stream, there was an outbreak of greenstone, which had
upheaved the clay-slate rocks.
On the 14th of September we proceeded along the
stream close to which we had encamped the day before.
High mountains, whose summits could not be seen from
the bottom of the narrow ravine, rose on both sides.