At the crest of the pass, the rock was a hard bluish-grey limestone, traversed in every direction by numerous crystalline veins. I ascended the hill to the south-east, to an elevation of nearly 16,000 feet, which was within a few hundred feet of the summit. At that height it was composed of a mass of loose fragments of black slate, perfectly moveable, and so steep, that it was difficult to progress in an upward direction. Vegetation had almost disappeared; more, however, from the moveable shingly soil than from the elevation attained, for wherever a solid rock peeped out, straggling plants still lingered; the rhubarb, _Biebersteinia_, a minute saxifrage, and a yellow lichen, were the species which attained the greatest altitude.
The view from the summit of the pass, and the steep hill above it, was extensive, but very desolate. In the direction of our previous journey, the rounded outline of the Runang range bounded the view, but in front a much wider and more diversified extent of country was embraced. To the eastward, the lofty mountain of Porgyul was seen almost to its base; its upper part a magnificent mass of snow, the summit being upwards of 22,000 feet in height. To the north of Porgyul, where the valley of the Piti river allowed the distant mountains to be seen, a succession of ranges rose one beyond another, the furthest evidently at a great distance, and covered with heavy snow[7].
The vegetation at the summit of the ridge was even more scanty than on the Runang pass. There was, however, more novelty in species than I had met with there. A grass, several saxifrages, _Potentillæ_ and _Seda_, a little _Thermopsis_, an _Anemone_, and a beautiful _Delphinium_ (_D. Brunonianum_, Royle), were the new species observed; and these, I believe, (as was indeed to be expected from the minuteness with which the country had been investigated by Dr. Royle's collectors,) were all previously described species.
From the pass the descent was pretty steep all the way to Hango, a small village, elevated 11,500 feet. The road lay on the side of a ravine, keeping the hills on the left hand, and the channel of the stream on the right. The _Dama_, which had disappeared at the summit, was again plentiful on the northern slope; and a shrubby species of _Potentilla_, quite new to me, was exceedingly common. Otherwise, little change was visible. The road was good, but the hills were dry and stony.