A HINDOO POPE. 379 



At Kurrunpryag, the junction of the Pindar river with 

 the Alaknanda, I tried for a mahseer unsuccessfully, although 

 the last time I had been there on my way to " the snows," I 

 had not been fishing a quarter of an hour before I was hard 

 and fast in a 30-pounder, which ran me for nearly an hour 

 ere I landed him, and I afterwards lost another the same 

 evening that must have been nearly as big. A day further 

 on, however, at Nandpryag, where the Nandakni flows into 

 the Alaknanda, I had good sport during the few hours I 

 fished there in the evening, killing three nice fish with spoon- 

 bait, the largest weighing 12 Ib. In one of the pools here 

 I saw a monster mahseer. He really looked as long as 

 myself as he lay motionless as a log in the deep water, but 

 nothing would tempt him. As the fish were evidently taking 

 well, I would fain have remained here for a day or two had 

 not the heat beside the river been so terrible and the flies 

 a perfect pest. 



In three more days I reached the village of Joshimutt, the 

 winter residence of the Eaol or high priest of the Temple of 

 Badrinath, a sort of Hindoo Pope who gives absolution to 

 thousands of "jatrees," as the pilgrims are here called, who 

 flock there yearly from every part of Hindustan. As the 

 temple was only about eighteen miles distant up towards the 

 glacier sources of the Alaknanda and I had time to spare, I 

 thought some of it might be spent to advantage in visiting this 

 Ultima Thule of Hindoo sanctity. 



The road leading to it was not of the best. After a very 

 steep descent to where the river Doulee (which here joins the 

 Alaknanda) is crossed by a " sanga " bridge, 1 the path leads 



1 A sanga bridge has its piers constructed of long beams or logs projecting 

 from both banks over the stream in layers slanting upwards, each layer sup- 

 porting the next above it which projects beyond it on transverse logs ; the 

 uppermost layers, therefore, being the longest. The space left over the 

 stream, between the outer ends of the uppermost layer on each pier, is spanned 

 by stout planks or poles for crossing on. The inner or shore ends of the pier- 

 beams are firmly embedded among heavy lumps of rock or boulders. 



