1 MOUNTAIN PASS. 383
2 village of Ghortsuh, on the north of the open sandy
3 space, by the side of the Nubra river at Khopalu, and
4 from the summit beheld the valley of Saltoru, contain-
5 ing several villages, and a considerable river, which
6 was winding its way to the Indus. The evening of
7 the third day brought us to the last village in the pass,
8 around which were growing small but excellent crops
9 of wheat, barley, and peas. The former were only
10 just ripening.
11 On the 5th of September, the thermometer stood
12 at 70° in the sun at 3 p. m. The chough, the hoopoe,
13 the water-wagtail, the linnet, and redstart, and the
14 wall-creeper,* were seen by me on the way.
15 Within sight of the village, the mountains are
16 split by a deep and narrow defile, opening towards the
17 north. The appearance of this pass, which, as I was
18 informed by a native who had seen both, much re-
19 sembled that of Brahaldoh, as it approaches the Muz-
20 tak, was different from any that I had yet visited, as
21 its sides were formed of perpendicular pinnacles of
22 gneiss, some of them being cleanly scarped from a
23 height of two thousand feet directly downward to the
24 bed of the valley ; and to complete the pre-eminently
25 wild and Ultima T/nile-\\ke appearance of the place,
26 there was scarcely an interval between the precipices
27 that was not occupied by a magnificent glacier.
28 The scanty jungul in which we halted, was about
29 three miles distant from the village. It contained wil-
30 * Tichodroma Fhcenicoptera.