136 THE FORESTS OF UPPER INDIA 



much better looking than the Hunias, and dress more 

 like the Hindus, but do their hair in a long flat plait hang- 

 ing behind, in which rough turquoise stones are set. 



August 6 found us on the top of the Kuti Pass about 

 noon, after a climb of eight hours. This time the Hunias 

 had not got word of our advance, and no one was there 

 to stop us ; in fact, during the whole trip we received 

 great civility from the pastoral and trading parties which 

 we met. The halt made for tiffin, and to collect the bag- 

 gage animals and men who straggled behind, was welcome. 

 The thermometer was boiled, and gave about 18,000 feet. 

 It was intensely cold, with cloud and snow driving. 

 Snow lay deep on the north side, but we got peeps through 

 the mist of the characteristic red and yellow coloured 

 shingly plains below, reminding one that this was no 

 longer Hindustan. The descent was over a great glacier 

 which filled the valley beneath our feet. It was of clear 

 ice, with lines of crevasses across, and streamlets flowing 

 down in lines vertically, and long lines of white quartz 

 rocks, which had fallen from precipices above and were 

 gradually being borne downwards until they reached the 

 lowest edge, where great blocks of ice were falling con- 

 stantly into the valley below. These blocks carried with 

 them the rocks and stones and mud, which fell in the same 

 place, forming a huge pile of stuff. 



Each glacier has usually its three lines of stones, two 

 lateral and one central. The central line goes down into 

 the roaring torrent which issues from a great ice cave 

 into the gorge below. The lateral lines are deposited at 

 each edge of the valley. As the glaciers of these parts 

 seem to have receded like those of Europe, owing to changes 

 of climate since the glacial period, it is natural that the 

 debris, which has been tilted over for thousands of years 

 in the same place on the ice, should leave great lines of 



