CAMPS IN THE UPPER FORESTS 51 



central cluster of snow peaks. Nanda Devi is one of the 

 most notable mountains in these parts, and extends with 

 its brother peaks of Nanda Kot, Moo Gobin, and Trisul 

 over an area of ten sheets of the survey, each twelve miles 

 square, about 1,440 square miles, or 921,600 acres. 

 From its great masses of snow-fields the Niti, the Rishi, 

 the Pindar, the Trisul, and other glaciers descend. That 

 in the Milam valley on the north-east, which will be 

 visited later on, is thirty miles long. It was impossible 

 to take the camp up the Rishi valley, as the sides were 

 too precipitous. The camp was therefore left at Rindi, 

 and a start was made with three men only from the 

 village, all well used to snow and glacier and rock climb- 

 ing, and one a good shikari, Punoo by name. A descrip- 

 tion of one climb taken from my diary will be given in the 

 next chapter. 



4—2 



