Note 2 — Chapter IV · THROUGH INDIA IN THE SEVENTH CENTURY.
Reading edition
The Author possesses a picture of the source of the Ganges, painted on panel, on the spot, by the late W. Simpson. Fakirs, at least in his time, were wont, when the end of life drew near, to ascend the glacier, and terminate the illusions of existence on the snow-mountains above it. Simpson saw a Fakir climbing up a snow-slope for this purpose. Now, as well as one can judge from this panel, the lower end of the glacier from which the infant Ganges is seen flowing would be about as broad as Hiuen-Tsiang states the source of the river to be.