1889-90-] ^ District in the Himalayas. 291 



imposed on him by the British Government, is to prevent any 

 pilgrims going near the precipice for fear of their trying to 

 commit suicide. This precipice is famous in Hindoo legend, 

 as the place from which the five Paudu heroes ascended to 

 heaven. But the mere fact of the pilgrims coming up from 

 the plains is a species of suicide, so many of them die before 

 they quit the mountains. One day when I was at Vishnu- 

 preag, an incident occurred. An old pilgrim and his old wife, 

 a childless couple, had been to visit Kidarnath and Budrie- 

 nath. On their way back, the woman became ill ; was taken 

 to the hospital, and died there. Her husband, as is the cus- 

 tom, committed her body to the sacred river. He then gave 

 a great feast to all the Brahmins of the place — as much 

 wheat, flour, and rice, and clarified butter, and sweetmeats, 

 as the little money he had left would pay for. Eising from 

 the feast, where he had presided as host, but had eaten noth- 

 ing, he went down to the river bank, and, with something 

 like a smile on his old wrinkled face, walked deliberately into 

 the roaring torrent. In an iristant, the mighty waves had 

 beaten him down, and he was never seen more. His life had 

 not been a wasted one. He had had a wife whom he had 

 loved. In his youth, while ploughing his fields, he had 

 often had dreams of some day visiting the Himalayan 

 mountains. Now, in his old age, he had seen the eternal 

 snows, and the two holy temples of Kidarnath and Budrienath, 

 and he was not going back to Live alone in his Bundelcund 

 village. 



I shall now proceed to speak more particularly of the fauna 

 and flora of Gurhwal, and shall take up first in order the 



Anlmals. 



In Gurhwal only two species of monkeys are found, but 

 both are abundant. They are Presbytes entellus and Macacus 

 rhesus. The same two are found all over the northern plains 

 of India, except that the black-faced monkey, Presbytes en- 

 tellus, has, in the plains, the hands also black. In the hills 

 it has only a black face, and the hands are body-coloured — a 

 difference not sufficient to make it a separate species. It is 



