304 THE DOONAGIRI GLACIER. 



ceeded for several miles along its opposite bank, where 

 the rocks sometimes rose so directly from the river as to 

 necessitate their being passed on rough loose planks or 

 poles supported on stakes driven into crevices below them. 

 Eecrossing the Doulee next morning by another very 

 rustic, and in this instance rather rickety bridge, we 

 struck up a narrow and deep glen, as romantic and wild 

 as forest and crag could make it, passing the picturesquely- 

 built little wooden chalet of Ewing about a mile from its 

 foot. After ascending 4000 odd feet from the river, in 

 a distance of only five or six miles, we reached the afore- 

 mentioned wide and elevated mountain-basin, and camped 

 close beside the hamlet, to which the Bhotia inhabitants 

 had only just returned from their winter sojourn below. 

 The village padan was most attentive and obliging, and 

 willing to give us all the assistance and information we 

 required regarding game. Up here we were almost above 

 the limit of forest, except for a few birch -trees and rho- 

 dodendron-bushes, which latter were all abloom with pure 

 white and pale lilac blossoms. 



As we left the hamlet next morning and took our way up 

 towards the glacier, the snowy heights above were just being 

 tipped with a pale rosy reflection, though the dawning light 

 was still dim and grey below. The crisp frosty air was 

 pinching cold, but an hour's sharp walking warmed us up. 

 On reaching the foot of the glacier, we stopped to take a 

 careful survey of the neighbouring slopes. There were three 

 small flocks of burrell visible, but the spy-glass showed that 

 they contained no old rams ; so we let them be, and went 

 on upward along the lateral moraine of the glacier in search 

 of something better. Nothing more, however, being dis- 

 covered, I got on to the glacier and proceeded up over it, 

 more from curiosity regarding it than with any idea of 

 finding game farther up. The ice was grey and very dirty, 

 with few crevasses, and the surface, though lumpy, irregular, 

 and thickly strewn with large stones, was quite easy to traverse. 



