and should. Whilst the row lasted, I was reminded of that spirited passage in the Cid where the Cid's knight strikes in the Council one of the Counts of Carrion.

"Then arose the cry of Cabra,

Here Valencia the fair,

There Castille and here Galicia:

Many a war cry rent the air."

In something under an hour, however, terms were come to, and the coolies agreed to act, if firstly they were paid in advance, and · secondly if the headman, in consideration of their acting in place of men he was bound to furnish, would present them with a fat sheep for dinner. Matters thus arranged, peace and good humour were restored, and the headman carried them all off to his house under pretext of hospitality, but also, I suspect, to guard against their changing their mind during the night. As I had already, in consideration of the hardship of the road, paid the coolies double the usual hire, I was somewhat at a loss to account for their unwillingness to earn an additional sum, and their preferring to return empty handed. As, however, I am not one of those ingenious theorists who solve such questions by supposing "niggers" act on principles unintelligible to other mortals, I made some enquiry and soon found a reasonable ground for their conduct. The coolies I found were furnished by the headman of Kiba who supplied them with food, but appropriated their wages himself. No wonder, therefore, the poor fellows objected to so much extra labour, from which they would reap small advantage. The traveller is powerless to remedy this, save by a small present which he may make to the men themselves, and in this case a few annas a piece, with the sheep they got at Korzo, made all happy and contented.

17th.-Return to former camping ground at the south end of lake. On the march, it being a fine sunny day, captured a number of small lizards among the stony ground along the lake, Phrynocephalus olivieri, Dum. These animals associate together in pairs, as I usually took a male and female near each other, often under the same stone, under which when alarmed they would rush. They also form regular burrows in the ground, either under bushes or in the open plain, to a depth of 8 inches or a foot, according to the nature of the soil. The most curious point connected with these lizards is, that

they are viviporous, one female containing three fœti, though two seemed the commoner number. This departure from the plan of oviparous reproduction usual among lacertines seems intended to meet the exigencies of a severe climate, for in a region where snow sometimes falls at midsummer, eggs exposed in the usual manner would run considerable risk of having their vitality destroyed by an untoward frost. Those naturalists who adopt Darwin's theory of "natural selection," and the progressive mutation of species, will find it an interesting problem to explain (rejecting the old fashioned view of creative adaptation I have assumed above) how the oviparous progenitors in mythical times of these lizards came to adopt or acquire a viviporous organization, one problem of the many which the new developement theory, I should say "Natural selection" raises at every step. Near the camp the shores of the lake were perforated by the holes of a short-tailed rat or lemming, Phaiomys leucurus, Blyth. Their holes frequently were ranged in a long line against a bank and usually extended so far that all attempts to capture an animal by digging or flooding the holes with water proved fruitless. After infinite trouble, however, I managed to dig out an adult female, which on examination I found to contain six young ones the size of horse beans, three in each horn of the uterus. The total length of this specimen was 6.15 inches, of which the head was 1.30, and the tail 1.25. Colour yellowish mouse brown, merging into pale gray beneath. This colour, however, only extended to the tips of the hair, the body of each hair being dark slaty-blue only visible when the fur was thrown back; fur loose, length, three-eighths of an inch; whiskers, seven-eighths; ears rounded, medium size, rather oppressed. I subsequently got several more, mostly half-grown, by watching near their holes with a gun.

18th.-Camp a little below halting-place of the 15th.

19th, Phalang-palra.-A mere halting-place among loose rocks which afford shelter from the wind. A few miles from last night's camp recross the Para river, which here was in several channels, in two of which the water nearly reached to a man's hips.

20th, Tatung.--(Tratung Kongma of Cunningham). A mere halting-place close to the highest limit of furze on the west bank of the Para river, a little above where I halted on the 13th. Sleet fell dur

ing the day, and the thermometer in my tent went down towards morning to 30.°

21st.-Recross the pass to camping ground in the Parilanghi river. Temperature of the air at the top of the pass 56°. Much fresh snow had fallen since first crossing it, the glare of which was very unplea

sant.

22nd, Kiba.

23rd, Chikim.-Having procured fresh coolies, cross the stream separating Kiba from Chikim and devote a day to the examination of the neighbourhood. Chikim is situated in a broad valley partially cultivated and well watered. The barley crops are now either ripening or being gathered in; at Kiba they were still green in some places, but heavy in the ear.

24th, Ki, 12,500 ft.*-Halt a day here to examine the neighbourhood. The monastery adjoining is one of the most picturesque buildings I have ever seen, or rather group of buildings, perched on the summit of an isolated peak a couple of hundred feet above the plain, and protected behind by a stupendous limestone cliff, some fourteen hundred feet high.

26th, Kuling.-Cross the Spiti river four miles below Ki, where the rocky chasm through which it rushes like an arrow, is spanned by a bridge formed of two trees, on which are laid wicker hurdles which, though rather shaky, will support a horse or yak.

27th, Chang, 11,568 ft.*-A tedious march, road in parts very steep and bad. In the small stream flowing into the Spiti river below Kuling, found a species of Limnæa adhering beneath stones, the same as noticed at Danka; and near the camp, among river rejectamenta, a pupa and a couple of helices,* small but very abundant. These are the only land mollusca noticed in the valley, but they were nowhere found in a living state. In a small feeder of the Spiti near the camp saw some small fish, long and eel-like, sheltering under stones, but could not capture any. Temperature of water 43°.

29th, Mikim, 11,762 ft.* A rather pretty village situated on the west bank of the Pin river, a little better than eight miles from its mouth.

30th, Muth, 12,306 ft.*- (Mud of Cunningham). Cross the Pin river a little below Mikim. Like all rivers flowing from glaciers, this

* Pupa muscorum, Helix fulva, H. pulchella.

should be crossed early in the day, as in the afternoon the melting of the snow raises it to a dangerous height. I crossed on a pony about 8 A. M., and the water was then up to the coolies' hips, and so powerful the current that a single man could barely stem it; the plan adopted being for all to join hands and force their way over in a body. A gentleman who crossed the day before had been separated all night from his baggage, owing to the men delaying to cross with him and being subsequently prevented following by the rapid rise of the river as the day advanced;-an unpleasant accident to happen. anywhere, but particularly unfortunate in such an inhospitable region as Spiti. At the village of Tiling, three miles from Muth, noticed a large number of Ibex horns, which I have nowhere else seen in the valley, "burrel" horns being those commonly met with. Camping ground on the opposite side of the stream from the village, opposite which there is a wretched suspension bridge.

31st, Balair, 13,225 ft.*-A mere halting-place, eight miles from the crest of the Tári or Bába pass. Near Balair passed large flocks of sheep and goats driven up here for pasturage, which is very luxuriant. I purchased one very fine ram of the Hunia breed of sheep with a fine pair of horns for four rupees. It was amusing to see how he sent my men reeling like ninepins, when they attempted to separate him from his fellows; but when my sheep came up, he suffered himself to be led along with them easily enough. Notwithstanding his size and fine horns, he proved to be little more than four years old, if so much. As I only required his skull, I gave the body to the coolies, who were more pleased than if I had given them a sheep with greater pretensions to edibility. The blood was carefully collected and cooked into a sort of pudding, but the headman first dipped his fore finger into it whilst still reeking, and flipped a little into the air and over the stones three or four times, muttering a short prayer whilst doing so. This I presume was a sort of expiation, or lustration for the act of shedding blood, which is theoretically a crime according to Buddhist notions. Among the loose rocks round the camp, shot several specimens, with feet furred to the toes, of Lagomys Roylei, Ogilvie. Though not rare here, I saw none south of the pass, though the ground was very favorable for them; and I conclude they do not range south of the Spiti valley. In a stream crossed in this march, collected many diatoms.

1st September, Camp, south of Bába pass 12,793 ft.* The ascent to the Bába pass is far from difficult, though a large glacier descends from the summit. This glacier is fissured by numerous crevasses stretching nearly across it, and at short intervals from one another. Few of these crevasses are so broad as to be impassable, but in order to select the best spots for crossing, the road winds considerably, and it would be decidedly difficult to cross without a guide who knew the track. The day before I crossed much new snow had fallen, which made the walking rather laborious and from its dazzling whiteness proved very annoying, though not to the extent to necessitate the use of a veil, though travellers would do well always to provide themselves with this article or a good pair of tinted spectacles or eyeshades.

On the southern descent of the pass a small glacier was crossed, but a very inconsiderable one compared with that to the north. The descent was extremely steep, far more so than on the opposite side, and soon brought me to the region of birches and verdure, the encamping ground being a rather straitened plot on the hill side covered with a rank crop of grass, wild flowers, and ferns.

2nd, Camp on east bank of the Wangur river, at Umpti 9,317 ft.*-There is no village here, but a mere camping ground in a fine forest of pines. This day's march appeared much longer than the map shows it to have been. The whole of the Wangur valley is remarkably picturesque, the central portion being well wooded with pines, oaks, birches, &c., whilst on either side rise up steep mountains terminating in snowy peaks and glaciers, and in many places scarped into precipices of the grandest dimensions. One of these magnificent precipices opposite the camp exhibited a sheer wall of rock springing from the Wangur river to a perpendicular height of three thousand feet, unquestionably the most majestic scarp I have ever beheld.

3rd, Wangtu Bridge.-At the village of Yangpa, some few miles below camping place, changed my Pin coolies, who from this return to Muth. About Yangpa, apricot, peach and walnut trees were flourishing in abundance, and in front of a wooden temple two trees very like fine elms. Some way below Yangpa the Wangur river is crossed by a timber bridge, after which the road keeps along its west bank to Wangtu. This portion of the road is steep and difficult, ascending and descending most precipitous rocks, and is quite impassable