496 Notes of a trip from Simla to the Spiti Valley. [No. 5, 



firmly held down by the towers or gateways, which, for greater secu- 

 rity, are filled at each side of the roadway with stones to the height 

 of three or four feet. From the ends of the uppermost or most pro- 

 jecting tier of logs, two trees are laid across, spanning the river, and 

 on which a roadway of planks is firmly secured, forming a very safe 

 and easy bridge over which a horse might easily be taken. Shortly 

 after passing the bridge, the Wangur river is crossed, a turbulent 

 brawling stream which descends from the Baba pass and enters the 

 Sutlej above Wangtu. After crossing the Wangur, the road ascends 

 a ridge which is so precipitously scai'ped by the Sutlej that no path 

 round it exists, though one could readily be made at a small cost and 

 a troublesome climb thereby saved. From the summit of this ridge 

 the road descends gradually to the Sutlej, along which it keeps till 

 near Chargaon, which is situated on a cultivated slope at some height 

 above the river. In some places the road is very steep and difficult, 

 and had been much damaged by the heavy rain of the previous day. 

 Near Chargaon I saw a pair of G-oral (nemorJiasdus) and some pi- 

 geons, among the superb cliffs overhanging the Sutlej. On the oppo- 

 site side of the river, the banks were very precipitous and scored by 

 numberless " shoots," down which pine logs would occasionaly come 

 rolling and plunging with heavy thud into the river below. So 

 steep, however, is the incline, and so clumsy the mode of sending 

 down the timber, that I think more wood is spoiled, than finds its 

 way into the river in a sound state, and when in the river, the loss 

 among the logs, by stranding or remaining in some eddy or reach till 

 they rot, must constitute a very large percentage on the number that 

 eventually reach the plains. This state of things will of course con- 

 tinue as long as any timber merchant or agent is permitted without 

 any let or hindraxice to destroy whole forests, by a reckless system of 

 clearing, having nothing in view but his own profits, and not caring 

 if fifty years hence not a stick remained large enough to make the han- 

 dle of a broom out of. This is surely a matter calling for Govern- 

 ' ment interference, though a topic I cannot enlarge on here, but content 

 myself with expressing a hope, that something may be effected to retard 

 this wholesale and wanton destruction of our forests, and a remedy not 

 applied only when the mischief done has almost become irremediable. 

 22?id, Meru. — A short march of not more than seven miles. The 

 camping ground, a dirty spot in the midst of the village. 



