148 THE FOREST AND THE FIELD. 



three hundred feet deep, that seemed to have been 

 cleft in the solid rock along the centre of a winding 

 gorge. On each side of this precipitous channel is 

 a slope, varying from a hundred yards to half a 

 mile in breadth, well wooded with pine and cedar, 

 whilst above this again rise steep lateral cliffs, 

 fringed with pine and birch, that for the most part 

 were covered with snow. After some hours' scram- 

 bling along a steep and tortuous track, during 

 which time we crossed many a deep water-course 

 furrowed in the sides of the mountain, we came to 

 the junction of the Keedar Gunga (the first con- 

 tributary stream of any size that joins the Ganges) 

 which takes its rise in the lofty range to the south- 

 ward. Here the sacred river glides over a huge 

 mass of rock forming a series of cascades, and 

 above this the channel widens, the gorge entirely 

 disappears, gentle slopes clothed with verdant 

 woods come quite down to the waters' edge, and 

 the stream is seen rolling swiftly over a broad bed 

 of shingle. 



On the right bank, about fifteen feet above the 

 stream, upon a slab of rock (that is held to be 



