so THE FORESTS OF UPPER INDIA 



Tibet. The descent lay through the extensive forest of 

 Tapoban, extending for eighteen miles eastward, and 

 clothing the slopes of the valley of the Rishi Ganga, a 

 torrent-branch of the Dhauli, which comes from the 

 glacier of Nanda Devi. This forest faced the north, and 

 consisted of silver fir {Picea Wehhiana) and Pinus excelsa. 

 It took a week to explore this forest. It was fuU of game, 

 bears, gooral, and the jerow, or great sambur deer. The 

 underwood in these regions consists of ringal, or hill 

 bamboo* {Arundinaria), growing so thickly that it is 

 nearly impossible to get through it. These bamboos are 

 very hardy, and make capital fishing-rods 30 feet long, 

 hollow and light to handle. A long descent in the shadow 

 of Nanda Devi, trying to the shins, brings one late and 

 tired to Tapoban, on the Dhauli river, a camp on the route 

 of the Bhotia traders over the Niti. Here are some hot 

 springs near the river-bed, and a pleasant bath is obtained. 

 It is dangerous to bathe in the snow-water, which sweeps 

 by as white as milk from the quartz rocks of Trisul, 

 ground fine beneath the glaciers. 



Tapoban is a hot place, and there is little space for 

 pitching a camp. An early start is made in company with 

 a sahib who is marching up the Niti for shikar, and has 

 already shot some gooral (chamois of the Himalayas). 

 He has been after the thar on the heights above, but has 

 not got any. Leaving the Dhauli river, I enter the side 

 valley of the Rishi Ganga and encamp above the village 

 of Rindi. 



Here a guide or shikari was engaged from the village 

 to explore the higher forests in various directions, so 

 that a near acquaintance could be made with the great 



* I have seen large clumps of this hardy bamboo growing and 

 thriving well in the woods in Ireland, grown from seed sent home 

 by myself. 



