240 TRANSACTIONS AND PKOCEEDINGS OF THE [Sess. LXiv. 



thousands of pilgrims from the plains pass every year 

 through the infected country, and often buy grain from 

 infected villages, and yet very few of them ever take 

 plague. I have only heard of two eases of pilgrims dying 

 of this disease. They were men who came last year from 

 Trijogi Narayan, and died near the village of Unsari, 

 not far from Okhimath, where the plague last year caused 

 a very great mortality. This happened in Xovember, 

 and at that season Okhimath is a cold place. I have 

 asked a number of patwdris, a number of native doctors 

 attached to the pilgrim dispensaries, and many other 

 people, and they all agree in saying that pilgrims from 

 the plains are rarely affected. Three explanations of 

 this may be given — 



First. That the pilgrims generally wear cotton cloth- 

 ing, not woollen or hemp, like the hill men. 



Second. The pilgrims rarely eat any of the kinds of 

 grain which are peculiar to the hills, such as mandua 

 (Eleiisine), chua (Amaranth), koni, jhingora, or china (three 

 kinds of Panicum). They live almost entirely on wheat, 

 barley, rice, and dal, which we must therefore suppose 

 are substances which are not poisonous, even when brought 

 from a village where the inhabitants are dying of plague. 

 Consequently the pilgrims escape spontaneous outbreaks. 



Third. They are not very likely to suffer from in- 

 fection, because they only enter the hills in April, and 

 follow a route which keeps pretty close to the valley 

 of the Ganges, where, from April till October, the 

 temperature even at night rarely falls below 75° Fahr. 

 They are certainly in danger above Okhimath on the 

 Kedarnath road, and above Joshimath on the Badrinath 

 road, but the pilgrims remain up in these cold regions 

 as short a time as they possibly can. Besides, the air 

 up there is very dry. And Copland (page 219) says 

 that the infectious power of Egyptian plague is greatest 

 in cold damp air ; that it exists, but is not very powerful, 

 in cold dry air ; and that it does not exist at all in 

 hot air, that is, any air whose temperature is above 

 75° Fahr. 



12. Mr. Batten, in his letter of 1st January 1850, 

 mentions the fact that European travellers and their 



