In Gurwal 



shall not attempt to defend. Round this village 

 were quantities of trees hollowed out for bees, and 

 we obtained some very good thick honey. A 

 leopard trap was another curiosity I saw here. 

 The animal was intended to creep into a hole over 

 which were planks supporting heavy stones. The 

 bait was tied to a pole supporting the planks, so 

 that when he tried to drag it away the whole 

 " outfit " came on the top of him, crushing him. 

 I couldn't quite understand a leopard entering 

 such a suspicious-looking place, but it was soon 

 explained. A patriarch said he remembered a man 

 being caught while tying on the bait. Another 

 called to mind a dog being crushed. There was 

 no legend of a leopard being a victim. 



Another village we came across was Sela, once 

 one of the residences of a white man who amassed 

 a large fortune by leasing the Gurwal forests from 

 the rajah, and floating timber down the Billung, 

 Bairgraithi, and other mountain torrents to the 

 Ganges at Hurdwar. This was a much more 

 civilized little town, and still bore traces of its 

 white occupation. The natives brought us some 

 small, hard apricots, from the effects of which it 

 took me some days to recover. 



I have not mentioned the rain much lately, but 

 it was always with us, except when it hailed or 

 snowed; we lived in a sodden condition and 

 camped perpetually in mud. One of my last 



65 F 



