398 A Description of Kuinaon, [Sess. 



was by tliis time known that all the victims of the first land- 

 slip must be dead, and most of the soldiers returned to 

 barracks ; but Mr Taylor, Lieutenant Sullivan, Mr Noad, 

 three brothers named Shiels, with others, went on digging to 

 get out the dead bodies. Suddenly, without a moment's 

 notice, the whole hillside slipped down and fell into the lake, 

 burying for ever the working-party. Thirty brave men passed 

 in one instant from time into eternity. Two years afterwards 

 the ground was consecrated as a cemetery, and there, fifty feet 

 below the surface, lie the bodies of the Assistant Commissioner 

 of Ku.maon and his band of volunteers, white men and black 

 together. His superior, the Commissioner of Kumaon, Sir 

 Henry Eamsay, had a narrow escape. While his Assistant 

 was digging at the upper end of the lake, he was at the lower 

 end, superintending a party who were deepening the outlet, 

 with a view to letting its swollen waters escape. When the 

 hill fell into the top of the lake it sent down a great wave, 

 which swept over the party working at the outlet. Three 

 men were drowned, and the Commissioner's life was only 

 saved by a private soldier, who pulled him up the bank, not a 

 moment too soon. Besides these, many other people were 

 killed, either on the main road or inside five buildings which 

 were buried by the landslip. These buildings were the 

 Victoria Hotel ; the principal shop, called Bell's shop ; the 

 Volunteers' orderly room ; the public library and assembly 

 rooms ; and the Hindoo temple, sacred to the goddess of the 

 lake. The total number who perished in this terrible calamity 

 was 151 — 43 British and 108 natives. 



In describing further the district of Kumaon, I shall now 

 proceed to speak of its 



Diseases. 



Plague, which I mentioned in my account of Gurhwal,^ 

 is more common there than it is in Kumaon. Goitre, leprosy, 

 and cholera are equally common. Goitre is generally met 

 with in limestone countries, as was first proved by Dr Cleland 

 of the Bengal Medical Service. Of leprosy I had great 

 experience, as I had medical charge of the Almora Leper 



1 See ante, p. 305 (Sess. 1889-90). 



