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 elevation; 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.