feet every way. The people were little | Sahib! Donai! Rajah." I found that good flour, which sold at Ruderpoor at thirty-eight seer for the rupee, was here at fifteen seer only, and that the mixture which the man offered to the soldiers was really so full of bran, and even chaff, as to be fit for nothing but an elephant. The man said, in reply, that he went by the Company's measure, and the regulation price; that all flour, except such as we saw, was scarce and dear in this part of Kemaoon; that he was allowed, in consequence of his situation, to charge more; and that the people and soldiery of the country desired no better than that which he furnished. I terminated the quarrel at last by paying the difference in price, amounting to no more than one rupee, between the good and the bad, and all sides were satisfied and thankful. and slender, but apparently muscular and active; their countenances intelligent and remarkably mild, and one or two of their women were not very far removed from pretty. This tribe of the Khasya nation, the chuprassee told me, are decidedly of migratory habits, dividing their time between the hills and the forest, according to the seasons, and it was thus that he accounted for the miserable state of their habitations. They very cheerfully and civilly showed me the manner in which they wash the ore, which is done by enclosing it in large wicker baskets, like those made to catch eels in England, surrounded partially by a goat-skin, but with a hole at the smaller extremity. This is placed under a stream of water conveyed in the same manner, and within an almost similar hut as the corn-mill which I had seen the day before, and the earth is thus washed away, leaving the iron behind. Even here are numerous traces of the superstition of India. We passed some rudely-carved stones, with symbols of Brahminical idolatry; and three miserable-looking beggars, two Brahmins, and a viragee, came to ask alms, in a strange mixture between Khasya and Hindoostanee. A traveller, wrapped in long cotton cloths, with a long matchlock on his shoulder, a shield and sword on his left side, on a pretty good horse, and attended by a ragged saees carrying two petarrahs, passed us and went on to the village. Abdullah said that he knew him by his dress to be a Sikh, and that he had probably been in search of employment as a soldier, either from the Rajah of Kemaoon, the Ghorkhas, or, perhaps, the Chinese. He was a very picturesque figure, and curious as a specimen of the irregular mercenary troops of India. My own Sepoys had a grievous quarrel with the "Goomashta," or agent of the Company's warehouse, and I was appealed to loudly by both parties; the soldiers calling on me as "Ghureeb purwar," the goomashta, not to be outdone, exclaiming, "Donai Lord November 26.-This morning we proceeded along a narrow valley to a broken bridge over the torrent, so like in scenery and circumstances to that called Alarm Brug, in Dovre in Norway, that I could have almost fancied myself there. We forded the stream without difficulty, though over a very rugged bed; but, during the rains, one of the chuprassees told me, a rope which I saw hanging loosely across the ruined arch was to transport the postman or any other passenger. He was seated in a basket hung by a loop on this rope, and drawn over, backwards and forwards, by two smaller ones fastened to the basket on each side. This is an ingenious though simple method of conveyance, which is practised also by the catchers of sea-fowl on many parts of the coast of Norway; it was the only way formerly in use of passing torrents or chasms in these countries; and the stone bridges which the English have erected are very ill able to resist the floods of the rainy season, which rush down these deep descents with great violence and rapidity. Bridges on Mr. Shakespear's plan are best calculated for this country. The snowy peaks had been concealed ever since we descended Gaughur, but the country is still very sublime; less The I had expected, from this hill, to see something like a table-land or elevated plain, but found, instead, nothing but one range of mountains after the other, quite as rugged, and, generally speaking, more bare than those which we had left, till the horizon was terminated by a vast range of ice and snow, extending its battalion of white shining spears from east to west, as far as the eye could follow it; the principal points rising like towers in the glittering rampart, but all connected by a chain of humbler glaciers. On one of the middle range of mountains before us, a little lower than the rest, some white buildings appeared, and a few trees, with a long zigzag road winding up the face of the hill. woody, less luxuriant than the southern | Meru! "That, my Lord (he cried side of that mountain, but still moulded out), is the greatest of all mountains! in the most majestic forms, and such out of that Gunga flows!" as I hardly knew whether to prefer or younger, who is not a man of many no to the splendid scenery which I had words, merely muttered "Ram! Ram! passed. The road is yet more rugged Ram!" and steep than that over the Gaughur, and the precipices higher; or rather, perhaps, their height is more seen because the trees are fewer and more stunted, and there is nothing to break the view from the brow to the very bottom, with its roaring stream, and narrow shingly meadows. I know not what is the reason or instinct which induces all animals accustomed to mountain travelling, such as mules, sheep, black cattle, and such ponies as I was now riding, to go by preference as near the edge as possible. I have often observed, and have been puzzled to account for it. The road is, indeed, smoother and most beaten there, but it has been this predilection of theirs, which has, in the first instance, made it so. My present pony had this preference very decidedly, and I often found him picking his way along, what I should have thought, the extreme verge of safety. I was satisfied, however, that he knew best, and therefore let him take his own course, though my constant attendants, the two Sepoys, often called out to him, "Ah, Pearl (his name), go in the middle, do not go on the brink." The fact is, that though there is some fatigue, there is no danger in any part of the road, if a person is properly mounted and not nervous. The long-legged Sepoy, who is I find a Brahmin as well as his comrade, is certainly an excellent walker; when I stopped, as I made a point of doing from time to time, for my party and my horse to take breath, he always said he was not tired: and he fairly beat the Kemaoon chuprassees, though natives of the country. Both he and the elder man professed to like their journey exceedingly, and the latter was greatly delighted this morning, when, on climbing a second mountain, we had a more extensive and panoramic view of the icy range than we had seen before, and the guides pointed out This, I was told, was the city and fortress of Almorah. The other nearer features in the view were some extensive pine-forests, some scattered villages of rather better appearance than those which we had left, and the same marks of industry in the successive terraces by which all the lower parts of the hills are intersected. These have by no means a bad effect in the landscape. The lines are too short and too irregular to have a formal appearance; the bushes and small trees which grow on their brinks look at a little distance exactly like hedges; and the low stone walls, so far as they are discernible at all, seem natural accompaniments to steeps so rugged and craggy. The mountains which I passed in these stages were all, so far as I saw, of limestone. There are, indeed, vast detached masses of granite lying everywhere on the side of the hills, in the valleys and the torrents; and the peaks of the mountains, if I had climbed up to them, would doubtless have proved of the same substance. But limestone and coarse slate are the materials of which the road and walls are made; and the few cottages which I have seen of a better appearance than the rest (I | passed two more villages in this day's march) are built and roofed with the same materials, as are also the Government warehouses. I saw many European plants to-day. Cherry-trees were numerous. I observed a good deal of honeysuckle and some hips and haws, and one of the guides brought me a large handful of bilberries. I saw, however, no ice; and indeed I had many opportunities of observing, that high as we had climbed in the course of the day, we were not so high as when on the top of Gaughur. Nothing could be finer than the climate. Though the sun was hot before we got to our station, the distance being seven coss, it was not unpleasant at any time of the day; nor, though in the shade it was certainly cold and chilly, was it more so than is usually felt in England in the finest part of October. My Sepoys, who, as all water-drinkers are, are critics in the beverage, praised exceedingly the purity and lightness of the little streams which gushed across the road. Mr. Boulderson, indeed, had told me that the Khasyas pride themselves much on their springs, and have been known to refuse advantageous situations in the plain, saying, "How can we get good water there?" This, however, does not seem to militate against their annual emigration. All the villages which we passed were empty, the people having gone to Bamoury for the winter. One or two cottages, however, were still inhabited round the Company's post, the master of one of which, who, though dressed like a common Khasya peasant, said he was the Zemindar of the district, brought me some beautiful lemons and some young potatoes, both the produce of his garden. Potatoes are much liked by the mountaineers, and are becoming very common. They are, perhaps, among the most valuable presents which they are likely to receive from their new masters. My attention here, as elsewhere, is never quite withdrawn from missionary inquiries, but in these annual emigrations I see a great hindrance to their reception of the Gospel or the educa tion of their children. At Almorah, however, and in the other towns, the case is, in some respects, different. The Company's post is a small bungalow, with a still smaller guard-room, which latter could only accommodate the Naitch and his party whom we found in possession, while the stony soil all around would not admit of our pitching the tents. The soldiers and servants were, therefore, obliged to sleep in the open air. He During the afternoon, and soon after I had finished my early dinner, a very fine cheerful old man, with staff and wallet, walked up and took his place by one of the fires. He announced himself as a pilgrim to Bhadrinâth, and said he had previously visited a holy place in Lahore, whose name I could not make out, and was last returned from Juggernâth and Calcutta, whence he had intended to visit the Burman territories, but was prevented by the war. He was a native of Oude, but hoped, he said, before he fixed himself again at home, to see Bombay and Poonah. I asked him what made him undertake such long journeys? said he had had a good and affectionate son, a havildar in the Company's service, who always sent him money, and had once or twice come to see him. Two years back he died, and left him sixteen gold mohurs, but since that time, he said, he could settle to nothing, and at length he had determined to go to all the most holy spots he had heard of, and travel over the world till his melancholy legacy was exhausted. I told him I would pay the goomashta for his dinner that day, on which he thanked me, and said "so many great men had shown him the same kindness, that he was not yet in want, and had never been obliged to ask for anything." He was very curious to know who I was, with so many guards and servants in such a place; and the name of" Lord Padre" was, as usual, a great puzzle to him. He gave a very copious account of his travels, the greater part of which I understood pretty well, and he was much pleased by the interest which I took in his adventures. He remarked that Hindostan was the finest country and the most plentiful which he | had seen. Next to that he spoke well of Sinde, where he said things were still cheaper, but the water not so good. Lahore, Bengal, and Orissa, none of them were favourites, nor did he speak well of Kemaoon. It might for all he knew, he said, be healthy, but what was that to him, who was never ill anywhere, so he could get bread and water? There was something flighty in his manner, but on the whole he was a fine old pilgrim, and one well suited to "Repay with many a tale the nightly bed." A nightly bed, indeed, I had not to offer him, but he had as comfortable a berth by the fire as the Sepoys could make him, and I heard his loud cheerful voice telling stories after his mess of rice and ghee, till I myself dropped asleep. CHAPTER XVIII. ALMORAH TO MEERUT. Trees used as Gallows-Bhooteahs-Kemaoon subject to Earthquakes-Havelbagh-Vegetation NOVEMBER 27.-As we had to climb | tine. It struck me forcibly to find the same dog-like and amiable qualities in these neglected animals, as in their more fortunate brethren of Europe. The dog had, before this, been rather a favourite with my party, and this will, I think, establish him in their good graces. We had two more toilsome ascents, and another deep and black ford to pass before we reached the foot of the hill of Almorah. The town is approached by a very long and steep zigzag road, which a few resolute men might defend against an army. On seeing the impenetrable nature of this whole country, one cannot help wondering how it ever should have been conquered. Its first subjection, however, by the Ghorkhas was in consequence of a disputed succession, and forwarded by the dissensions of the people themselves. Its recent conquest by the British was aided by the goodwill of all the natives, whom the cruelty of their masters had disposed to take part with any invader. The Khasyas in every village lent their help, not only as guides, but in dragging our guns up the hills, and giving every other assistance which they could supply. I was met by Mr. Traill about half a mile from the town, mounted on a little pony like that which he had sent me. We rode together under a spreading toon-tree, so like an ash that I at first mistook it for one. There are four |