summit of which, far above the forest region, commands the Pindur from this to its source, and communicates by a goat-path with the Dhakree Benaik.

We were accompanied here from Khathee by Ram Singh, the accredited guide to the glacier; an athletic mountaineer of Soopee, with the limbs of Hercules and the head of Socrates, but scarcely his honesty : this last quality having been perhaps sullied by a three years' abode at Almorah; we found him however, with some disposition to make the best of them, very useful in our subsequent difficulties, and ultimately parted well pleased with each other.

The trees, &c. on the route to-day include all those near Khathee, except the Banjoak; to these may be added the Elm, Ulmus erosa? 'Chumburmaya," of great dimensions; Juglans regia, "Akor," Cerasus cornuta, "Jamuna," Spiraea Lindleyana, Leycesteria formosa, "Kulnulia," Hippophae salicifolia, "Dhoor-chook," the "Turwa-chook" of the Bhoteeahs, in abundance all along the banks of the river from Dewalee to Khathee. Ampelopsis Himalayana, "Chehpara," the climbing and the arborescent Hydrangea, the latter called "Bhoo-chutta" and Bhoojhetta," the hazel," Bhoteeah-budam,” and “Kapasee," Corylus lacera, Piptanthus Nepalensis, "Shulgurree," on which the Thar is said to feed in preference: Ribes glaciale and acuminata, black and red currants, "Kokulia;" Berberis Wallichii, and the only fir, Picea Pindrow. Picea Webbiana is pretty common above Diwalee; both known as "Ragha;" but not a vestige of Pinus excelsa (which however, Mr. H. Strachy found common in Beans) nor of Abcis Smithiana, which from Captain Raper's account, is not to be met on this side of Joseemuth. There is a thick undergrowth with the above, of Strobilanthes, Balsams, Rubus, Cucumis Himalensis, Cuscuta verrucosa, Polygonum runcinatum, molle, and others. Oxyria elatior, Tricholepis nigricans (Edgeworth), Senecio nigricans, alata, canescens, and chrysanthemifolia; Aster ferrugineus (Edgeworth), a shrub which also occurs in Kunawur, Aster alpina, Inula Royleana (Aster inuloides of Don), Jussilago, very abundant on rubble, &c. Doubtless these form but a moiety of the vegetable riches of this region, which I could only partially examine from under the auspices of an umbrella.

On arrival at Diwalee we seized the opportunity of a partial cessation of the rain to pitch our tents; but it soon recommenced, and continued

to fall from this time for no less than 75 hours without a break! This deluge came from the east, and prevailed over all Kumaoon, and no doubt much farther; it made us prisoners in our narrow tent till 5 P. M. on the 20th, when the clouds cleared away before a west wind. During this period, the smallest rivulets became unfordable, and the Pindur and Kuphinee were swollen into the most turbulent, turbid and ungovernable torrents. Up near its source I afterwards observed that the former had risen from 15 to 20 feet, and lower down where the bed is more contracted, and had received countless accessions, it was probably double this; accordingly at 2 P. M. on the 20th we were not surprised by a shout from our people that the Kuphinee bridge was swept away; and in a few hours, our worst fears were confirmed that both bridges over the Pindur had shared the same fate, after standing uninjured for the last 4 or 5 years. This Ram Singh was pleased to call “burra tumasha,” but it was death to some of us, and would have placed us in a most serious dilemma as to provisions, had not a flock of sheep and goats, returning from the summer pastures, been fortunately arrested in the same spot as ourselves, utterly cut off from any escape to the south by two savage rivers, and with no means of advance to the north except over the hopeless pass to Milum, barely practicable in the best weather. It was an unlucky emergency for the flock, as during our imprisonment in this slough of despair, we and our followers ate six, and the bears seven of them. The destruction of the bridges isolated our party in three distinct groups: one in the peninsula, a second on the left bank of the Kuphinee, while the third, driven thence on the night of the 18th by the waters invading their oodiyar or cave, had crossed to the right bank of the Pindur, and taken up their residence in a cave between the two bridges. These, when the bridges went, were intercepted from all aid; those across the Kuphinee were supported by "fids" of mutton and goat flesh, which we flung over; but without salt or flour; this food disagreed much with all our people, and when supplies reached us, it was curious to observe how every one eagerly demanded salt. On the 21st, the eight men across the Pindur, contrived to clamber down the right bank, till at a spot about two miles short of Khathee, they found a place where its force was somewhat diminished by the current being divided into three streams: these, four of them determined to cross, and had actually got over two, but

the third and last separated them, and three of the unfortunates were instantly carried off and drowned; the fourth, a very strong swimmer, reached the bank, but was so bruised and chilled, the water being at 42°, that he could not lay hold of the rocks, and was rapidly drifting after his luckless companions, when Messrs. Hort and Powys, ignorant of the fate of the bridges, came to the spot at this critical moment, on their way to Khathee, and dragged him out. Mr. Hort might have addressed him in the words of Pythagoras, O Genus attonitum-gelide formidine mortis, Quid Stygias, quid tenebras, quid nomina vana timetis; Materiem vatis, falsique pericula mundi? but he did much better: he clothed him, and restored the circulation by brandy, and had him carried back to Khathee. For having his life saved by this unlawful medicine, the poor man soon become an outcast, and it required all my persuasion, and not a few menaces, to induce his accusers to make the amende, on our return to Khathee; this was only accomplished by the chief of them publicly drinking water from his hands, which was not done without much hesitation and many a grimace.

September 21st was a glorious day, and was passed in various devices to throw a plank over the Kuphinee, to expediate Ram Singh to Khathee, to which, once over this torrent he said there was a track passable for goats and Danpoorees, but all our inventions and exertions failed for want of a felling axe and some thirty yards of strong rope, without which no one should intrude into these regions; during the course of the next day, however, we received a communication from our friends below, with some supplies; and what was better a detachment of the bold Soopee men appeared on the other bank of the Kuphinee, and with some assistance on our side, soon laid a tree or two over that stream, which by noon on the 23rd were so secured and planked as to be passable to us; and our coolies being so starved and paralyzed as to be utterly useless, we sent them all back to Khathee. By the 24th the upper Pindur bridge was partially restored, but as there appeared no probability of the lower one being completed for some days, I determined to make a push for the glacier.

We had smart rain from 2 till 6 P. M. on the 23rd. The Pindur river, about 60 feet below us, was invisible from our tent during our "close arrest;" not so the Kuphinee, which, though actually as far down, was right before us, and bounding down its inclined bed at such

an angle as to threaten us with apparent destruction. So great was their combined roaring that all conversation was kept up by shouting, and with the party over the water by gesticulations only. At night, one could not help fancying one's self on board a colossal steamer, with the thunder of the machinery and the incessant plash of the paddles deafening one; but there all is guided by skill and design : here the wild war of the elements seemed to terminate in destruction merely. They afforded a fine study for the action and resistless force of large bodies of water in motion down steep planes. Everywhere the lateral torrents had heaped up on each of their banks enormous bunds of mud, gravel, and huge rocks. When we passed, the waters of course had greatly subsided, and perhaps in their utmost force could never move such blocks; these must be owing to the landslips and great debacles of mud, in which the specific gravity of the stones is reduced almost to nothing. When subsequent rains have washed away the mud, there remain those immense couleés of rocks so prevalent along the mountain slopes as we approach the Himalaya.

September 24th.-With Ram Singh as guide, one of my own followers who wished to see the glacier, two Danpoor coolies, tea apparatus, and a column of ready-made chupatees, I started at 10: 20 A. M. for Dooglee, and reached at 1 P. M. distance about five miles. The rise is gradual but continuous, and except near Diwalee, though the road was much cut up by the innumerable torrents and rivulets still rushing across it, I did not experience much difficulty; there, one or two formidable landslips had fallen, which compelled us to rise and get round them—not very pleasant work, when all was still tottering. The "still-vexed" Pindur raves close on the left hand during the route, and at about two miles from Diwalee becomes most savage, leaping down its rocky bed and among the birch-covered boulders in a series of the most Cambrian rapids and cataracts. It flows from 150 to 200 feet below Dooglee, whence, and indeed from the glacier, its course towards Diwalee, is nearly straight, and due south. At about one mile from the latter place, there is, across the Pindur, a very fine waterfall: and higher up, on the same side, where the crags fall precipitously to the river, three or four more, all equally beautiful, fed by the snows, and trembling over the bleak bare rock above the line of vegetation in copious sheets of spray. On the left bank the cliffs and shivered pin

nacles are more remote, and rise from a tract of undulating ground strewed with great rocks and covered with forest and brushwood. At two miles from Diwalee passed a hut and grazing ground, called Toon Paehurree, a little to the east of which a superb cascade falls from the heights in three distinct leaps. One advantage of the late rain and snow is that these falls are now in perfection.

Approaching Dooglee the glen becomes very narrow, and the wild crags and bluffs above the forest across the river, now mantled in an unbroken sheet of snow, are but a few hundred yards distant! The accommodation provided here by nature for the wayfarer consists of a most enormous mass of mica-slate, a little above the road to the east : its western face projects gradually so much as to afford a tolerable shelter in the worst weather, as I had soon an opportunity of testing; for the heavy clouds drifting up the valley turned to rain at 3 P. M., which continued for an hour and a half; but though it was bitterly cold, the Oodiyar remained waterproof. Several similar rocks are grouped here and there in the vicinity, on which the spreading Juniper grows freely : the site also being just at the highest verge of the forest, must be about 11,500 feet above the sea. The wild goat is said to be very numerous hereabouts: and I noticed several flocks of the "Snow Pigeon;" higher up, amongst the cliffs at Pinduree, the Chough is The vegetation towards Diwalee comprises the trees before specified, with Silver Fir (Picea Webbiana and Pindrow); Birch (Betula Bhojpatra), Rhododendron arboreum and barbatum, Maples, Jamuna Cherry, with coppice of Viburnum nervosum and cotinifolium, Rosa Webbiana and Sericea, "Sephula" of the Bhotiahs, Berberis brachystachys (Edgeworth,) Jasminum revolutum, Syringa Emodi (“ Gheea,”) Lonicera obovata and Webbiana, several sallows, the red and the white fruited mountain-ash, Pyrus foliolosa, "Sullia," "Hullia," (the letters. s and h are interchangeable here, as in Latin compared with Greek ;) and extensive thickets of Rhododendron campanulatum; while the pastures and streams abound with alpine plants, such as Spirea Kamtchatkika, Cynoglossum uncinatum, "koora," aplotaxis aurita, Carduns heteromallus (Don), "Sum-kuniou," Swertia perfoliata, "Simuria," Cyananthus lobata, Impatiens moschata and Gigantea (Edgeworth,) Rhodiola imbricata (ditto,) Saxifraga parnassiafolia, Caltha Himalensis, Elshottzia polystachya and Strobilifera, Podophyllum Emodi, Sal

common.