he was there, was treated with unbounded kindness and confidence, and their Khân has since sent a formal offer, which I am sorry was declined, of his allegiance to the British Government.

To return from this digression. I found Almorah a small but very curious and interesting town. It chiefly consists of one long street, running along the ridge of the mountain from the fort westward to a small block-house eastward, with scattered bungalows, chiefly inhabited by Europeans, to the right and left hand on the descent of the hill. The main-street has a gate at each end, and, on a small scale, put me in mind of Chester. The houses all stand on a lower story of stone, open to the street, with strong square pillars, where the shops are, looking like some of the rows. Above the buildings are of timber, exactly like those of Chester, in one or sometimes two very low stories, and surmounted by a sloping roof of heavy gray slate, on which many of the inhabitants pile up their hay in small stacks for winter consumption. The town is very neat, the street has a natural pavement of slaty rock which is kept beautifully clean: the stone part of the houses is well white-washed, and adorned with queer little paintings; and the tradesmen are not only a fairer but a much more respectable looking race than I had expected to see, from the filth and poverty of the agricultural Khasyas.

We passed two or three little old pagodas and tanks, as well as a Mussulman burial-ground. The Mussulmans were treated with great rigour here during the Ghorkha government. They are now fully tolerated and protected, but their numbers are very small. Government, on the conquest of Almorah, very liberally built a number of small bungalows in airy situations round it, for the accommodation, gratis, of any of their civil or military servants, who might come to reside here for their health. They are small low cottages of stone with slated roofs, and look extremely like the sea-bathing cottages on the Welch coast, having thick walls, small windows, low rooms, and all the other peculiarities (most different from the generality of Anglo-Indian houses) which suit a boisterous and cold climate. Yet, in summer, the heat is considerable, and the vallies very far from wholesome, being, some of them, indeed only a shade better than Tandah, and the rest of the Terrai. On the hill tops, however, there is always a fine brecze, and, even in May and June, the nights are chilly.

There is another reason why the bungalows of this country are built low. Kemaoon is extremely subject to earthquakes; scarcely a year passes without a shake or two, and though all have been slight since the English came, it would not be wise to build upper roomed houses, unless, like the natives, they made the superstructure of timber. In the best of these bungalows I found Mr. Adams, who received me most hospitably. He introduced me to

Sir Robert Colquhoun, the Commandant of the local troops of Kemaoon, who invited me to accompany Mr. Adams and himself, on Monday, to his house at Havelbagh, where the native lines are, and where Mr. Adams is residing at present, as being a milder climate than that of Almorah. Mr. Adams had a party to dine in the evening, and I found that almost all the civil and military officers here were Scotch.

Sunday, November 28.-This day I enjoyed the gratification of being the first Protestant Minister who had preached and administered the sacraments in so remote, yet so celebrated, a region. I had a very respectable congregation of, I believe, all the Christian inhabitants of Almorah and Havelbagh. Mr. Adams allowed me to make use of the two principal rooms in his house, which, by the help of the folding-doors between them, accommodated thirty or thirty-five persons with ease. I was, after service, introduced to Lady Colquhoun, who is celebrated in the province as a bold rider along the mountain paths. I was also introduced to Captain Herbert, who has the situation of geologist in this province, and who seems a very well-informed, as he is a very pleasing and unassuming man. He and Sir Robert Colquhoun were just returned from a scientific expedition to the eastern frontier, and gave an interesting account of the Ghorkha troops there, whom they described, as they have been generally represented, as among the smartest and most European-like soldiery of India. We had family prayers.

I forgot to mention that, during this day, I walked up to the fort of Almorah, a very paltry thing, so ill contrived as to be liable to an escalade from any daring enemy, and so ill situated as to be commanded from two points of land on opposite sides, and not to have a drop of water within its walls. It is out of repair already, and certainly not worth mending.

November 29.-I went down this morning to breakfast, and to remain, during the rest of my stay in Kemaoon, at Sir Robert Colquhoun's, at Havelbagh, by a steep and winding, but firm and safe road, carried down the northern side of the mountain of Almorah, into a larger valley than I had yet seen in Kemaoon, where are lines for the provincial troops, and several bungalows for the civil officers. The situation is very pretty, and indeed fine. At a considerable depth below the houses, through a narrow rocky glen, the deep black Koosilla runs with much violence, crossed by one of those suspension-bridges of branches and ropes made of grass, which have been, from considerable antiquity, common in these mountains, and appear to have given the original hint both to the chain-bridges of Europe, and those which Mr. Shakespear has invented. The situation is striking, and the picturesque effect extremely good, but the bridge a present so much out of

repair, (a great many of the branches which compose its roadway being broken or decayed,) that I did not care to trust myself on it, particularly as I could not stand or cling so securely as the bare-footed natives of the country, on broken and detached pieces of wood. I saw, however, one of the Khasyahs pass it, but with some apparent difficulty, and Mr. Traill talked of having it taken down to prevent accidents. During the dry season the river is fordable, and by persons on foot passed easily enough. On horseback, as I had occasion to find some days after, it is by no means a good ford, and none but mountain ponies could keep their legs on a bottom so uneven and rocky.

Havelbagh is probably 2500 feet lower than Almorah, and, in summer, many of the vegetables of hot climates flourish here extremely well. The sugar-cane, however, does not thrive sufficiently to yield sugar, but plantains and mangoes come to some perfection. It is remarkable, that though the summer is much hotter, there is, in winter, more and harder frost here than at Almorah. In the neighbourhood of the snowy mountains, the vegetation, as much of it as exists, is nearly approaching to that of Europe. Raspberries, blackberries, cranberries, and bilberries, are found in considerable numbers. The birch and willow here, as in Norway, are the latest trees which show themselves to persons ascending the hills; but the sides and lower ravines of their feet are covered with noble silver-fir. But few cedars are now found in the province; tradition describes them as having been once very numerous, and as having been destroyed owing to their value as building materials, a fact which seems attested by the circumstance that all the beams in the old Raja's palace at Almorah, when that was taken down to make room for the fort, were found to be of cedar. In the present forests, fir is the prevailing timber, but, except the silver-firs already spoken of, of a very bad and worthless, though tall and stately kind. Great devastations are generally made in these woods, partly by the increase of population, building, and agriculture, partly by the wasteful habits of travellers, who cut down multitudes of young trees to make temporary huts, and for fuel, while the cattle and goats which browse on the mountains prevent a great part of the seedlings from rising. Unless some precautions are taken, the inhabited parts of Kemaoon will soon be wretchedly bare of wood, and the country, already too arid, will not only lose its beauty, but its small space of fertility. Of the inhabitants every body seems to speak well. They are, indeed, dirty to a degree which I never saw among Hindoos, and extremely averse to any improvement in their rude and inefficient agriculture, but they are honest, peaceable, and cheerful, and, in the species of labour to which they are accustomed, extremely diligent. There are hardly

NATIVE BIRDS.

407 twelve convicts now in the gaol of Almorah; and the great majority of cases which come before Mr. Traill are trifling affrays, arising from disputed boundaries, trespass, and quarrels at fair and market. The only serious public cases which are at all prevalent, are adultery, and, sometimes, carrying off women to marry them forcibly. They use their women ill, and employ them in the most laborious tasks, in which, indeed, a wife is regarded by the Khasya peasant as one of the most laborious and valuable of his domestic animals. These people, though rigid Hindoos, are not so inhospitable as their brethren of the plain. Even Europeans travelling through the country, who will put up with such accommodations as the peasantry have to offer, are almost sure of being well received, and have no need of carrying tents with them, provided their journey is made at a time when the peasantry are at home to receive them, and not during the annual emigration to the plains. The population of Kemaoon amounts to about 300,000; that of Ghurwal, on the other side of the Alacananda, is yet more considerable, and the people in a higher state of civilization and intelligence. Of this latter province only a small part constitutes the "reserved dominion of the Raja of Kemaoon." The capital of his little territory is called Dera. He is described as a mild tempered man, but a careless governor, and too fond of money.

There are larks in Kemaoon of a sort not very different from the English, as well as quails, partridges, and pheasants. The thrush is, as I have mentioned, black. A little bird, whose note nearly resembles that of a robin, is black and red; and there is no singing bird here exactly answering to any in Europe, except the goldfinch, which is found at the foot of the snowy mountains. Eagles are numerous, and very large and formidable, and, as their nests are high up in inaccessible crags, and amid the glaciers, it is not easy to abate the nuisance. They do much injury to the shepherds and goatherds, and sometimes carry away the poor naked children of the peasants.

Of wild quadrupeds, besides those which I have mentioned in my journal of the way up the hills, there are hares, much larger and finer than in Hindostan or Bengal, and not inferior to those of Europe. The chamois is not uncommon in the snowy mountains, but scarce elsewhere. There are also lynxes, and bears are common and mischievous throughout the province. Though they do not, except when pressed by hunger, eat flesh, preferring roots, berries, and honey, they, as if out of capricious cruelty, often worry and destroy a passenger. They are said particularly to attack women, a peculiarity which has been remarked in the bear in other countries, and which is one of the many presumptions that they belong to the same class of animals with the

baboon and oran-outang. The musk-deer is only found in the highest and coldest parts of the province, and the neighbouring countries of Thibet and Tartary. It cannot bear even the heat of Almorah. The same observation applies to the yâk; they droop as soon as they leave the neighbourhood of the ice. The shawlgoat will live, but its wool soon degenerates, a very unfavourable presumption as to the event of the experiment of colonizing them in Europe, which has been tried in France on so large a scale. On the other hand, the animals of the south seem to do very well among the snow. English dogs, impaired by the climate of the plains, improve in strength, size, and sagacity, among the Bhooteahs; and, what is very remarkable, in a winter or two they acquire the same fine, short shawl-wool, mixed up with their own hair, which distinguishes the indigenous animals of the country. The same is, in a considerable degree, the case with horses: those which the Bhooteahs bring down for sale are very beautiful, though rather shaggy little creatures, resembling extremely the Siberian ponies which I saw in Petersburg. The tiger is found quite up to the glaciers, of size and ferocity undiminished, but I could not learn whether he has shawl-wool or no. The fact of his hardiness, however, proves sufficiently that he, the lion, and the hyæna, (which is also common here,) may have lived in England and France without any such change of climate as my friend Mr. Buckland supposes to have taken place. Another instance fell under my knowledge of how much the poor hyæna is wronged, when he is described as untameable. Mr. Traill had one several years, which followed him about like a dog, and fawned on those with whom he was acquainted in almost the same manner. Mr. Adam, and Lady Colquhoun, had each of them beautiful flying squirrels, which, they told me, are not uncommon in the colder and higher parts of these woods. They were as tame as squirrels usually are, and had all the habits of the European animal. They were, however, a little larger, or perhaps appeared so from the large folds of loose skin, covered with beautiful soft and thick fur, which, when they pleased, they extended by stretching out their hind and fore feet. Mr. Traill had several skins of chamois in his possession. The animal seems nearly of the same size and colour with those which I saw, and with the pictures of the European one. It is, however, I think, more shaggy, and better protected against the cold; more like, in fact, a common goat, and its horns seem larger.

Small marmots of the Alpine kind abound in the neighbourhood of the snow, but none of the "Leming" or Lapland species that I could hear of. If they existed, their numbers and annual incursions into the cultivated districts would, probably, soon make them well known.