FEMALE PORTERS. 411 



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 prac- 

 ticable for crossing by the time we got there. We therefore 

 struck our camp next day. Six buxom Bhotia 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 

 (Cupressus torulosa), which are scattered over the lofty over- 

 hanging 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, situ- 

 ated 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 stands perched among the rocks, having, with 

 its projecting eaves and weather-stained timbers, all the pic- 

 turesque look of a Swiss chalet. Up this gorge towards the 

 glacier is good ground for tahr. In fact all the lateral gorges 

 of the Doulee valley are, in their upper regions, the resorts of 

 either tahr or burrell; but in some of them the difficult 

 nature of the ground is such that I do not think I overrate it 

 when I affirm that unless one is tolerably free from the feel- 

 ing of apprehension commonly termed " giddiness," hunting 



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. 



