ing them from their neighbours.

"In Kumaoon,

the head and neck seem the constant vehicles; but the Ghurwali, or inhabitants of the western district of our mountain provinces, who are said to be a more intelligent race, carry their burthens on their back, with a truss like that of an English porter. Thus, they do more work with more ease.'

Among the wild animals who inhabit these mountains," the tiger is found quite up to the glaciers, of size and ferocity undiminished;" there are also lynxes and hyenas, and bears are common and mischievous. * The chamois is not uncommon in the snowy mountains. The musk-deer is found only in the highest parts of the province it cannot : even bear the heat of Almorah. The yák (or Thibet cow) also droops as soon as it leaves the neighbourhood of the ice. The shawlgoat will live, but its wool soon degenerates; while the English dog is said not only to improve in strength, size, and sagacity, among the Bhooteahs, but to acquire, in a winter or two, the same fine, short, shawl-wool, mixed up with their own hair, which distinguishes the indigenous animals. The same is, in a considerable degree, the case with horses. Hares are found here, much larger and finer than in the southern provinces, and not inferior to those of Europe. A beautiful flying squirrel is not uncommon in the higher and colder parts of the woods. Small marmots, of the alpine kind, abound in the neighbourhood of the snow; and rats of the same species as those

*The fact of the tiger's hardiness, the Bishop remarks, proves that he, the lion, and the hyena, may have lived in England and France, without any such change of climate as has been supposed to have taken place, in order to account for the recent discoveries of their former dens. The notion that the hyena is untameable, is disproved by the fact, that Mr. Traill, the British magistrate, had one for several years, which followed him about like a dog.

of India, are numerous and troublesome. At Bareilly, Bishop Heber saw a beautiful and rare animal of the deer kind, from the hills; it is called goonh, and is sometimes used to carry the children of chiefs. The one described was still young, about the size of a fallow-deer, with upright horns, not palmated; its hair very thick, and as coarse and as strong as hog's bristles; its colour brown, mixed with grey and black. It was very tame and gentle, and was expected to grow tall and stout enough to bear a saddle. But the most remarkable animal of these parts, Bishop Heber says, is a wild dog, in form and fur resembling a fox, but considerably larger and stronger, and exceedingly wild and fierce. Instinct leads these animals to hunt in packs; "they give tongue like dogs, and possess a very fine scent. They make, of course, tremendous havoc among the game in these hills; but that mischief they amply repay by destroying wild beasts and even tigers." These last have been repeatedly found torn in pieces, which could be ascribed to no other enemy. Eagles are numerous and very formidable: they do much injury to the shepherds and goatherds, and sometimes carry away the poor naked children of the peasants.* Quails, partridges, pheasants, larks, not very different from the English, a black thrush, a little black and red bird, with a note nearly resembling the robin's, and (at the foot of the snowy mountains) the goldfinch, are mentioned by Bishop Heber among the winged tribes who inhabit Kumaoon.

We have now attended the Bishop to the extreme

*The eagle of these mountains, the Bishop supposes to be rather the Condor vulture, the roc of the Arabians. "Lieutenant Fisher shot one at Degra, which measured thirteen feet between the tips of its extended wings, and had talons eight inches long. He was of a deep black colour, with a bald head and neck."Heber, vol. ii. p. 277.

He

point of his enterprising journey northward. descended into the plains by the more frequented road of Chilkeah and Casherpoor, passing over the summit of Choumoka Devi, a peak 7800 feet above the sea, but covered with noble trees, (cypress, toon, and fir,) and commanding a view of the most magnificent mountain scenery. A long and rugged descent of above seven miles, leads into the valley of the Koosilla, and the road continually crosses the stream, till at length it emerges into a broader and beautiful defile. With the exception of the gorge of Mount Gaughur, nothing is seen on the Beemthal road, which equals the banks of the Koosilla in this part of its course. Chilkeah, which the Bishop reached on the sixth day, is a poor place, inhabited only during the healthy season, when it forms one of the principal marts of trade both into Kumaoon, and through that country into Thibet. Ten coss further is Casherpoor, 66 famous place of Hindoo pilgrimage, with divers temples, and a very holy and dirty tank, where the pilgrims bathe in their way to the temples at the foot of Badrinauth." But its appearance is not less ruinous than Ruderpoor, and the surrounding country is " a very wild, marshy, and jungly plain." On the tenth day (from Almorah), the Bishop reached Moradabad, situated on the sluggish stream of the Ramgunga, and still retaining some remains of its former splendour. Thence, his route lay for three days through the western part of Rohilcund, which appeared poor, sterile, and thinly peopled; and on the fourth, he reached the ferry of the Ganges, which divides the Moradabad district from that of Saharunpoor. Even here, at almost the driest season of the year, the river was found not much less broad than the Thames at PART VII.

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a

Westminster Bridge, and the elephants were compelled to swim. During the rains, judging from the traces of inundation, it must be nearly four miles across. On the sixth day (from Moradabad), the Bishop reached Meerut in the Doab. Here we leave him for a while, in order to gather up from other sources, some further information with regard to the mountain regions.

The province of Gurwal (Garhawal, Ghurwaul), which extends westward from the Dauli, Alaknunda, and Ramgunga rivers to the Jumna, penetrates, to the north and east, the snowy mountains, meeting the Chinese territories in an undefined line. Its superficial extent is estimated at 9000 square miles; but a very small portion is either cultivated or inhabited, large tracts being abandoned to the undisturbed possession of the wild animals. It contains two geographical divisions: Gurwal Proper, occupying the whole of the lower ranges of hills; and the snowy mountains from which descend the sources of the Ganges. Serinagur, the capital, situated on the Alaknunda, (in lat. 30° 11′ N., long. 78° 44′ E.) is the only town of consequence; besides which, there are two which claim mention: Barahaut, the modern residence of the Gurwal Raja; and Dehra, the chief town in the fertile doon (or strath) to which it gives name, and which has been retained by the British Government. The province abounds, however, with celebrated places of Hindoo worship, which seem to have been held sacred for many years, although there is reason to suppose that the conversion of the natives to the Brahminical faith took place at no very remote period. Four of the five prayags or sacred confluences, as well as the supposed source of the Ganges itself at Gun

gautri, are within the limits of this miserable principality.

The country lying west of Gurwal, between the Jumna and the Sutlej, (an area of about ninety miles by sixty,) is divided among a number of petty states and lordships, who, since their deliverance from the Ghoorkalese yoke, have been taken under the British protection. Sirmore, which had for its capital Nahn; Kahlore (or Kuhloor), the capital of which is Belaspoor; Hindoor; and Bussaher (Besariya, Busahur, Bischur), of which the capital is Rampoor; are the four most considerable principalities. Besides these, there are enumerated twelve thakooria or lordships, and fourteen petty chiefships.

For any minute knowledge of the topography of that portion of the mountain region which lies between the Alaknunda and the Sutlej, we are indebted chiefly to the journal of a tour through those parts by Mr. Fraser, undertaken in 1815; in the course of which he penetrated to several points never before visited by a European. On the 9th of March in that year, he left Delhi for the British camp, then lying before the fort of Jytok in Sirmore. He proceeded by dawk tó Kurnal, a town seventy-six miles N. of the Mogul capital, and at that time the most remote military posi tion held by the British in that direction. On the 12th, he left Kurnal, and proceeded through a tract of level

Viz. 1. Devaprayaga or Deoprag, formed by the junction of the Bhagirathi and the Alaknunda, twelve miles W. from Serinagur. 2. Rudraprayaga or Rooderprag, where the Alaknunda receives the Kaligunga, nineteen miles N. E. from Serinagur. 3. Carnaprayaga, five miles higher up, at the mouth of the Pindar 4. Nandaprayaga, the most northerly, where the Alaknunda receives the Nandakini. Vishnuprayaga, where the Dauli, or Sati, joins the same river, is not held in much veneration. See pp. 2022 of our first volume.

† See page 319 of our second volume.