) 



A ]MAN DEOWNED. 169 



sad accident. The day we arrived, one of 

 our coolies, in trying to cross a small stream 

 at the spot where we were making a new 

 bridge,* slipped and caught hold of a pole 

 which had served as a hand-rail to the old 

 bridge ; there was nothing to hold it in its 

 place, and away the poor fellow went, swept 

 off in an instant. He was seen once, — in 

 the next moment he was in the Ganges and 

 drowned. These small streams, the feeders 

 of the Sacred River, are excessively dan- 

 gerous ; they become towards evening fearful 

 raj)ids, from the melting of the snow above, 

 and I have often seen a stream, that might 

 have been crossed in the morning without 

 wetting the feet, so full in the evening, that 

 we were forced to bridge it. This cast a 

 sad damp over the whole party. 



We halted the next day and Svinday, and 

 sent Jye Sing upon an exploring expedition 

 to the Kedar valley ; we hunted some 

 ground near us, where the burrell were wild 



* A bridge consists of one or two poles for the road-way, and 

 sometimes, as a luxury, a hand-rail. 



