140 THE FOREST AND THE FIELD. 



necessary, for the path was extremely rough, often 

 steep, and in some places wound so closely round 

 the scarps of precipices as to render travelling dan- 

 gerous. After crossing the Kanoulee or Cedar 

 Gadh by a sango, we had to clamber along a narrow 

 ledge cut out of the face of the cliif, with a fearful 

 abyss below, and the scarped rock above ; and 

 scarcely had we surmounted this difficulty, than we 

 had to pass over shakey plank platforms that 

 trembled under foot as we walked, and rickety 

 flights of wooden and stone steps, fastened to beams 

 driven in fissures and crevices in the rock, hanging 

 several hundred feet above the river that was 

 dashing along its contracted narrow channel with 

 an almost deafening roar. Here the bed of the 

 river in many places was strewn with huge blocks 

 of rock which had fallen from the cliffs above, and 

 some of these were so large that they obstructed 

 the course of the stream, and added not a little to 

 the turbulence which the rapidity of its descent 

 necessarily occasioned. After some distance the 

 valley opened out, and we crossed and recrossed 

 the Ganges several times, seeking the most practi- 



