I.— A DESCRIPTION OF KUMAON, IN TEE 

 CENTRAL HIMALAYAS. 



By Dr WILLIAM WATSON, President. 



{Read Nov. 26, 1890.) 



I PROPOSE to give an accovint of Kumaon, a province of the 

 Central Himalayas, and especially of its capital, Almora. I 

 lived for a number of years at Almora, which is built on a 

 hill about 5500 feet above the level of the sea, and surrounded 

 on all sides by higher hills. To the north, Almora has the 

 oak-crowned summit of Binsur ; to the south, the mountains 

 of the outer range, where are the military stations of Naini 

 Tal and Eanikhet, the latter garrisoned by two English regi- 

 ments. To the east is a hill which has on it a temple of 

 Brinda Bashini Devi, — Our Lady of Dawn ; ^ and to the 

 west a hill with a temple to Shama Devi — Our Lady of Dark- 

 ness. The crest of the Almora hill is occupied by the main 

 street, half a mile long. The houses along it are generally 

 two-storey ones, the lower storey being usually of stone, and 

 the upper of wood, often picturesquely carved. On either 

 side of the main street are parallel streets of poorer houses, 

 and farther down the hill are many villas belonging to English 

 residents and to the richer natives. 



Like many other places in the Himalayas, Almora gets its 

 name from a plant, the Eumex hastatum, called in Hindustani 

 " Almora," which covers the hillsides in great profusion. In 

 the same way Simla, where the Viceroy resides, is named after 

 the cotton-tree {Bomhax malcibariacvi), called in Hindustani 

 " Semal " ; while Mussourie, the most popular of the Hima- 

 layan hill -stations, derives its name from the shrub Cor- 

 iaria nepalensis, the native " Mussourie." Everybody knows 

 that the Himalayas are the highest mountains in the world, 



^ Literally, " Our Lady of the plant Basil," — that plant being associated with, 

 and a poetical synonym for, the dawn. 



VOL. II. 2 D 



