MAMMAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 283 



bushes. Ehododendrons are abundant in large isolated patches ; but 

 heavy forest ceases a mile or so below. The Pindar River issues 

 from the Glacier at an elevation of 12,088 feet, and passes some 

 hundreds of feet below the Phurkia bungalow, the mountains rising 

 almost perpendicularl}^ from its banks, tower upwards and culminate 

 in magnificent snowclad peaks of which Nanda Devi (25,660 feet) 

 is the principal. At Martosi and the Pindari Glacier, some 2,000 

 feet higher up, vegetation is much more scanty and masses of bare 

 rock and boulders predominate. 



Khati is a small village at 7,650 feet in the Pindar Valley about 

 1,000 feet above the river. The country here opens out into beauti- 

 ful expanses of rich grass land, dotted with patches of pine, oak 

 and bamboo forest forming compact masses of dense cover. 



Bharkuri. — A camp was made here on the Pindari side almost at the 

 top of a pass between the Pindar and Sarju Valleys. There is no 

 village or cultivation, the whole mountain side being clothed with 

 the deepest forest of oak, pine and bamboo. 



Livarhhet. — A large village on the other side of the pass. Nearly 

 the whole hill side is terraced for cultivation, rice being grown 

 in the vallej^ below, near the river. 



Bageswar is a very large village, 27 miles north of Almora, 

 altitude 3,143 feet, on the banks of the Sarju River. The valley 

 broadens here and is irrigated and used for the cultivation of rice, 

 while rape seed and millets are grown on the surrounding slopes. 

 My collection was made at a spot some three miles above Bageswar, 

 having an adjacent cultivation of millets and heavy pine forests 

 on the slopes above, there is also an abundant undergrowth of 

 white thorn and in the valley dwarf date palms flourish. 



Takula is a small village on the ridge between Almora and the 

 Sarju River, it is surrounded by heavily wooded slopes, the principal 

 trees being pines and oak, with a thick undergrowth. 



Batighat, Naini Tal. — A small village at an elevation of 3,800 

 feet on the road between Almora and Naini Tal. Four large valleys 

 converge here and the mountains being verj?- steep and heavily 

 wooded make Ratighat a picturesque spot. Cultivation is very scanty. 



Bhowali. — About eight miles to the East of Naini Tal and 

 occupying part of the same range. The village lies in a deep 

 holJow and is surrounded by slopes clothed with dense forest oi 

 Ohir Pine and Oak. During my short stay in November the cold 

 was intense though the altitude is only 5,700 feet. 



Sitahani. — Sitabani is situated in the foot hills about twenty 

 miles W. or S.W. of Naini Tal and at an altitude of 1,500 feet. 

 Large forests of Sal are interspersed with tracts of open ground 

 covered with very tall spear-grass. The ground after sloping 

 gently from the Himalayas is broken abruptly by a line of low hills 

 and the depression so formed is a considerable swamp, water 



