56 Contributions to Physical Geography, 



sible nature of the interior of the Himalaya must ever render 

 it impossible to ascertain its existence by actual inspection. 



6. Account of the Brahma Kund,* By Captajn Bedford. 



After some ineffectual attempts to open a passage to the 

 supposed head of the river, the Deo Panee, or Brahma Eund. 

 the divine water, or well of Brahma, which it was known was 

 not remote, and after some unsuccessful efforts to reach the 

 villages, the smoke of which was perceptible on the neigh- 

 bouring hills, a communication was at last effected with the 

 Meeseemees of Dillee, a village about a day's journey from the 

 left bank, as well as with the Gaum or Tikla, the head man 

 of the Brahma Kund village, in whose company a visit was 

 paid to the reservoir on the 4th of April. This celebrated re- 

 servoir is on the left bank of the river : it is formed by a pro*- 

 jecting rock, which runs up the river nearly parallel to the 

 bank, and forms a good sized pool, that receives two or three 

 small rills from the hills immediately above it. When seen 

 from the land side, by which it is approached, the rock has 

 much the appearance of an old Gothic ruin, and a chasm about 

 half way up, which resembles a carved window, assists the si- 

 militude. At the foot of the rock is a rude stone seat ; the 

 ascent is narrow and choked with jungle : half way up is 

 another kind of seat, in a niche or fissure, where offerings are 

 mad^ ; still higher up, from a tabular ledge of the rock, a fine 

 view is obtained of the Kund, the river and the neighbouring 

 hills : Access to the summit, which resembles Gothic pinnacles 

 and spires, is utterly impracticable : the summit is called the 

 Deo Baree, or dwelling of the deity. From the rock the de- 

 scent leads across a kind of glen, in the bottom of which is the 

 large reservoir, to the opposite mainland, in the ascent of 

 which is a small reservoir about three feet in diameter, which 

 is fed by a rill of beautifully clear water, and then pours its 

 surplus into its more extensive neighbour below. The large 

 Kund is about seventy feet long, by thirty feet wide. Be^ 

 sides Brahma Kund and Deo Panee, the place is also termed 

 Purbut Kathar, in allusion to the legend of Parasurama hav- 



• See this Journai, No. viii. p. 302. It is now certain that this' reser- 

 voir is not the origin of the Braniapooter. 



