CHAPTER II. 



THE outpost of Shore, or Pithoragarh, as it is officially 

 termed, at which I had arrived, is situated in a pretty, 

 basin-shaped, green valley, about eight miles in circumfer- 

 ence, at an altitude of somewhat over 5000 feet. The 

 valley is encircled by high hills, except where a wide gap 

 to the north-east discloses a beautiful glimpse of the snowy 

 range. The post consists of a small British-built fort, and 

 a stockade perched on an adjacent eminence ; a few native 

 shops ; the huts for the detachment quartered there ; and 

 three dwelling-houses for the officers. 



Black bears and other large game were plentiful at that 

 time on the neighbouring heights, and hill-tigejs and leop- 

 ards were not uncommon. One grand hill, immediately 

 south of the valley, and rising about 3000 feet above its 

 level, was especially famous for game the Thakil by name, 

 so called after a singular kind of palm-tree that grows on 

 it, and seemingly peculiar to that hill, as I observed it on 

 none of the neighbouring ones. Its bare straight stem, 

 topped with a bunch of feathery, fan-shaped fronds, has a 

 rather anomalous effect, shooting up singly, to a height of 

 30 or 40 feet, here and there among gnarled old oaks, 

 rhododendrons, and conifers, at an elevation of between 

 GOOO and 8000 feet above sea-level, and more especially 

 in winter when the hill is covered with snow. 



On the evening of my arrival I had been dining with the 

 officer commanding the outpost, who was then the solitary 



