110 THE FOREST AND THE FIELD. 



which were filled with clothes, ammunition stores, 

 and supplies of every kind that we calculated would 

 last us for two months; four contained " atar," or 

 coarse flour, rice, curry stuff, and salt for our people ; 

 two held our cooking utensils, two cheel-pine 

 torches and firewood ; and two contained a com- 

 plete breakfast kit, which, with one of the scouting 

 tents, was sent on the day before, so that our break- 

 fast was always ready by the time we arrived on 

 the new ground, or half-way, when the march was 

 very long. Thus, although we eschewed beer, and 

 curtailed all extraneous baggage, we had thirty-two 

 coolie loads, each man carrying about fifty pounds' 

 weight. All our preparations and arrangements 

 being completed, we bade adieu to our friends in 

 Dehra, and sending on our people, drove to Rajpoor, 

 at the foot of the Mussoorie hills, the first range of 

 the Himalaya, that rise about four thousand feet 

 above the Doon. The eastern part, on which is 

 Landour, the military cantonment, rises about a 

 thousand feet higher. 



After a first-rate breakfast at a comfortable hotel 

 kept by a ci-devant trooper, we commenced the 



