FORESTS AND RANGES OF THE MIDDLE ZONE 79 



bathed in the stream, but the moras and mosquitoes took 

 most unfair advantage while we dried and dressed our- 

 selves. There were tracks of bears ; and gooral, or 

 Himalayan chamois, were seen on the precipices, but out 

 of range. Here inhabit the chir pheasant, the koklas, 

 and the Argus with his scarlet eyes and blue horns and 

 wattles, and the monal is found further up. These jungles 

 are full of beautiful shiny - leaved evergreen trees ; and 

 shrubs of many uncommon kinds and orchids abound, 

 clinging to the stems of the oaks. There are several 

 kinds of feathery-leaved acacias, and many kinds of 

 flowering creepers, which hang from branch to branch. 

 Box-trees are occasionally met with higher up, and rhodo- 

 dendrons and magnolias of several kinds abound, and as 

 to ferns, the profusion of varieties is incredible. 



Next day we moved our camp to a place called Kunaar, 

 where there were no villages or inhabitants, right under 

 the peak of Chipula, which is 13,000 feet in elevation and 

 has a considerable cap of snow. The hot weather was 

 melting it rapidly, and in the silent night the thunder of 

 repeated avalanches woke us, as if just above our tent. 

 We camped on a nice grassy slope with a pond of water, 

 and when the bheesty went to fill his masak, he was con- 

 fronted by a herd of thar, which were coming to drink. 

 He ran to the tent in a great hurry, but on discovering 

 our camp the thar had made tracks into thick jungle. 

 There were signs of every kind of game and wild beasts, 

 and we determined to be upon the grassy slopes at very 

 early dawn. There were some very jagged-looking rocky 

 precipices, which the thar frequented. 



Next morning we were out when the morning star, 

 Mercury, just twinkled above the horizon. No streak of 

 daylight had yet appeared, but there was the cold feeling 

 in the air which precedes the dawn. Climbing steadily 



