After crossing this plain, and stopping to rest by the fountain, we began to ascend the long slopes of the hills, partly on a level ridge, partly along the wide sloping valleys by which the low hills were separated. Both hills and plain were frightfully arid, the aspect of the country being of an uniform grey colour; and coarse gravel, with scattered stones of larger size, everywhere covered the surface. The ascent was very inconsiderable till towards the end of the day's journey. The distance travelled was about ten miles, and we encamped at about 15,800 feet, on the left bank of a small stream which descended from the north, the borders of which were swampy and covered with green turf, in which the common plants of the country occurred, such as little gentians, _Ranunculi_, _Parnassia_, several _Polygona_ and _Potentillæ_, _Carices_, and grasses. On the west bank of the stream was a low ridge of clay-slate rocks, while on the right and in the valley was a heap of granite boulders; no doubt an ancient moraine, for the fragments were piled on one another to a great height, and rose far above the stream as well as the ordinary level of the plain.
[Sidenote: LANAK PASS. _September, 1847._]
On the 13th of September we crossed the Lanak pass, which lay before us at a distance of about five miles. From our encampment the mountains appeared easy of access and rounded in outline, and we commenced the ascent by a nearly level walk across the gravelly plain. After a mile and a half we rejoined the stream, and kept along it for a little way. Its banks were green with a narrow belt of turf; and the bed was often rocky, the rock being still clay-slate, notwithstanding the granite boulders everywhere scattered about. The edges of the stream were frozen, spiculæ of thin ice adhering to the herbage. The vegetation was quite alpine, the elevation being certainly above 16,000 feet. A _Delphinium_, which seemed the same as the _D. Brunonianum_ of the Hangarang pass, a little yellow saxifrage, and a white-flowered species of the same genus, which I believe to be the Scottish alpine _S. cernua_, an entire-leaved yellow _Ranunculus_, a _Pedicularis_ with purple flowers, and some grasses, were the most remarkable plants observed.