1822.) the Sources of the Rivers Ganges and Jumna.” 33 
wooden gallery, or balcony, which is supported by beams that 
project from the walls. The roofs of the houses are made of 
boards or slates; they are shelving, and project much beyond 
the top of the walls, and cover the balcony, which is closed in 
bad weather by strong wooden shutters or pannels. These 
houses are very substantial, and have a handsome appearance at 
a distance, but they are exceedingly filthy within, and full of 
vermin. The walls are composed of long cedar beams, and 
stone in alternate courses, the ends of the beams meet at the 
corners, where they are bolted together by wooden pins. Houses 
of this construction are said to last for ages ; for the Deodar or 
Cailon pine, which, I suppose, to be the cedar of Lebanon,* is 
the largest, most noble and durable, of all trees. 
_ The situation of this village on the east side of a mountain, the 
summit of which is covered with snow, and the foot washed by 
the Bhagirathé is very pleasant. It commands a noble view of 
the Sri Canta, and other adjoining peaks of the Himalaya, on 
which the snow for ever rests. Snow also remains until the 
rains, on all the mountains of the second order, which are visible 
hence, both up and down the river. Many cascades are formed 
by the melting of the snows on the foot of the surrounding moun- 
tains. One in particular descends in repeated falls of several 
hundred feet each, from the summit of a mountain across the 
river, and joins it near Batheri. 
In the following account of my progress up the river, I have 
put down such remarks as occurred at the time, and they were 
written on the spot, and are here inserted with very little altera- 
tion. Though { am aware that such minute descriptions of 
localities must appear tedious, I hope they will be excused by 
those who, feeling interested in the subject, may have the pa- 
tience to read the detail. To give general descriptions of such 
rude regions is difficult, if not zmpossible, and I trust that parti- 
cular ones, though often tedious, will be found more faithful, and 
to give more precise ideas of those remote recesses of the Hima- 
laya, which I visited. 
On the 19th of May, I was joined at Reital by Lieut. Herbert, 
of the 8th Reg. N. I. who had been appointed my assistant, and 
from his skill and zeal, the survey has received much benefit. 
Mr. Herbert came direct from Calcutta, and brought me a pair 
of mountain barometers, but the tubes filled in England had been 
broken before they arrived in Calcutta: there were some spare 
empty tubes which we filled and used as hereafter mentioned, 
but we could not succeed in boiling the mercury in the tubes to 
free it entirely of air. The height of Reital above the sea, as 
indicated by our barometers, is 7108 feet. 
_ Having received reports that the sanghas were repaired, and 
that the grain I sent forward was lodged in the places I directed, 
 ® It is the pinus Deodara of Roxburgh ; the Dévyadaru of Sanscrit writers,—H, H. W, 
New Series, vou, wv. D 
