CHAPTER 11. 



The outpost of Shore, or Pithoragarh, as it is officially 

 termed, at which I had arrived, is situated in a pretty, 

 basin-shaped, green valley, about eight miles in circumfer- 

 ence, at an altitude of somewhat over 5000 feet. The 

 valley is encircled by high hills, except where a wide gap 

 to the north-east discloses a beautiful glimpse of the snowy 

 range. The post consists of a small British-built fort, and 

 a stockade perched on an adjacent eminence ; a few native 

 shops ; the huts for the detachment quartered there ; and 

 three dwelling-houses for the officers. 



Black bears and other large game were plentiful at that 

 time on the neighbouring heights, and hill-tigers and leop- 

 ards were not uncommon. One grand hill, immediately 

 south of the valley, and rising about 3000 feet above its 

 level, was especially famous for game — the Thakil by name, 

 so called after a singular kind of palm-tree that grows on 

 it, and seemingly peculiar to that hill, as I observed it on 

 none of the neighbouring ones. Its bare straight stem, 

 topped with a bunch of feathery, fan-shaped fronds, has a 

 rather anomalous effect, shooting up singly, to a height of 

 .30 or 40 feet, here and there among gnarled old oaks, 

 rhododendrons, and conifers, at an elevation of between 

 6000 and 8000 feet above sea-level, and more especially 

 in winter when the hill is covered with snow. 



On the evening of my arrival I had been dining with the 

 officer commanding the outpost, who was then the solitary 



