glacial valley (represented in the accompanying cut) to
the snowy peaks south of Junnoo, was particularly grand
and most interesting from the precision with which
one great distant existing glacier was marked by two
waving parallel lines of lateral moraines, which formed,
ANCIENT MORAINES IN THE KAMBACHEN VALLEY.
as it were, a vast raised gutter, or channel, ascending
from perhaps 16,000 feet elevation, till it was hidden
behind a spur. With a telescope I could descry many
similar smaller glaciers, with huge accumulations of
shingle at their terminations; but this great one was
beautifully seen by the naked eye, and formed a very
curious feature in the landscape.
Between the moraines, near my tent, the soil was
perfectly level, and consisted of little lake-beds strewn
with gigantic boulders, and covered with hard turf of
grass and sedge, and little bushes of dwarf rhododendron
and prostrate juniper, as trim as if they had been
clipped. Altogether these formed the most picturesque
little nooks it was possible to conceive; and they
exhibited the withered remains of so many kinds of
primrose, gentian, anemone, potentilla, orchis, saxifrage,
pamassia, campanula, and pedicularis, that in summer-
they must be perfect gardens of flowers. Around each
plot of a few acres was the grand ice-transported girdle
of stupendous rocks, many from 50 to 100 feet long,
crested with black tabular-branched silver firs, conical
deep green tree-junipers, and feathery larches ; whilst
amongst the blocks grew a profusion of round masses
of evergreen rhododendron bushes. Beyond were
stupendous frowning cliffs, beneath which the river
roared like thunder ; and looking up the glacial valley,
the setting sun was bathing the expanse of snow in
the most delicate changing tints of pink, amber, and
gold.
The boulders forming the moraine were so enormous
and angular, that I had great difficulty in ascending it,
and where the large rhododendrons grew amongst
the rocks I found it impossible to penetrate. The
largest of the moraines was piled to upwards of 1000
feet against the south flank of the lateral valley, and
stretched far up it beyond my camp, which was in a
grove of silver firs. A large flock of sheep and goats,
laden with salt, overtook us here on their route from
Wallanchoon to Yalloong. The sheep I observed to feed
M 3