74 THE FORESTS OF UPPER INDIA 



to a good deal of climbing and many changes of climate 

 when you attempt to surmount it. The higher you get 

 up, and the further from the foot hills, the rougher and 

 more difficult becomes the climbing ; the valleys are 

 deeper and more cut into ravines, the rocks more fan- 

 tastically and rudely torn asunder, and the very vitals 

 of the earth exposed ; while the heights above tower to 

 the skies. The torrents rushing from under the glaciers 

 which flow from the snow-clad summits, roar and foam, 

 eating their way ever deeper into the misty gorges. The 

 vegetation becomes more and more of a European 

 character and reminds one more of Switzerland, without 

 the cockney element which destroys the charm of the 

 Alps ; and the natives become more hardy, self-reliant, 

 and interesting. 



I will now describe a trip to the higher valleys and across 

 the snowy range. It was in June, 1864. The party con- 

 sisted of four, the Hon. Robert Drummond, B.C.S., brother 

 of the then Lieutenant-Governor North-West Provinces, 

 Henry Hodgson (on avisit to the writer), Lieutenant-Colonel 

 Smyth, Inspector of Schools, North-West Provinces, and 

 myself, on leave. Stores were laid in at Almora to last 

 three months, consisting of tinned soups and meats for 

 emergencies, ammunition, oatmeal, groceries in bags, and 

 green goggles to protect the eyes when crossing snow. 

 Warm woollen clothing was taken, and tents and camp 

 equipage of the lightest, divided into loads of thirty sers, 

 or sixty pounds each. Flour and rice, milk and ghee, 

 could be bought at most places. 



Ponies were taken to overtake the baggage and servants 

 gone ahead to Pithoragarh, four or five marches east of 

 Almora,. The lower hills looked very much scorched up 

 by a blazing sun, and the air was thick with the dust rising 

 from the sweltering plains to southward, and smoke from 



