FEMALE PORTERS. 30 7 



and got down to where the first ram had fallen. He was a 

 good beast, with thick horns about two feet long. After 

 cutting off his head and cleaning him, we hid his carcass 

 with stones from the soaring carrion-feeders, and then pro- 

 ceeded round below to look for the other animal. We found 

 him lying quite dead, and considerably smashed by his tre- 

 mendous fall among the rocks. Luckily his head, which 

 was nearly as good as that of the first I had shot, was little 

 injured. Well satisfied with our forenoon's sport, we made 

 straight for camp, which, by fording the stream, we reached 

 in a much shorter time than we had taken in coming out. 



It was now the end of May, and as the Niti ghat was 

 several days' journey from here, I concluded it would be 

 practicable for crossing by the time we got there. We 

 therefore struck our camp next day. Six buxom Bh5tia 

 lasses assisted in carrying our traps down as far as Ewing, 

 where we camped that evening. At first they were timid 

 and shy, but soon became more confident and communicative 

 as they trudged merrily along with their loads, laughing and 

 joking as they went. From here we easily reached the 

 village of Malari in a day. The wild beauty of the Doulee 

 valley below Malari is much added to by grand deodar 

 cedars and cypress - trees (Cupressm torulosa), which are 

 scattered over the lofty overhanging crags. You see great 

 old trees, some of them many feet in diameter, 1 clinging by 

 their gnarled roots to narrow ledges or clefts on the faces 

 of almost vertical precipices, and you wonder how on earth 

 they can stand and flourish there as they do, with nothing 

 apparently but the naked rock to sustain them. On the 

 opposite (north) side of the river, situated at the entrance 

 of a narrow gap, through the vista of which you can see a 

 fine glacier rising white and broken, the village of Kosa 



1 These two beautiful trees, which are the pride and ornament of the Hima- 

 layas, grow -to a height of considerably over 200 feet, and in girth are frequently 

 met with 38 to 40 feet, at 4 or 5 feet from the ground. The timber of both is 

 excellent. 



