1840.] Journal of a trip through Kunawur, fyc. 509 



the stream. On inquiry, it appeared that the rock had been displaced 

 by a goat which I had that morning bought for my people, and which 

 being refractory, a man was hauling along by a rope round its horns, 

 and thus in the resistance and scramble of its feet it had nearly made me 

 pay dear for my generosity. A few miles farther on brought us down 

 to the Sangho, across the Lingtee, and on the road to Dunkur, where 

 after a hot walk of about eight miles we halted for the night. 



It is perhaps sometimes as well for us that we cannot lift the cur- 

 tain and peep behind the screens, or we should leave many things 

 undone that our ignorance of coming events prompts us to undertake ; 

 and thus it was with me, for had I been at all aware of the fatigues 

 and discomforts which awaited me, I do not think that even my love 

 of science would have tempted me into those bare and chilling scenes. 



To describe the numerous shifts and annoyances that a traveller 

 meets with, would be but labour lost, and after all, from him who is 

 snugly ensconced " in his ain ingle neuk," or comfortable parlour, 

 these would but elicit a smile, and therefore it is useless to enlarge 

 upon them, as they must be felt, ere they can be fully appreciated. 

 Not the least of them however is the following ; every inch of level 

 ground that can be rendered available is cultivated, and it often hap- 

 pens that the only spot the traveller can find on which to pitch his tent, 

 is one on which, to judge from the deep accumulations of their dung, 

 large flocks of sheep and goats have been folded since the days of the 

 good old patriarch Abraham. Here then " the weary and way-worn 

 traveller" is necessitated to pass a night of sleepless wretchedness, 

 stifled by the stench which arises in almost perceptible fumes from 

 the ground, and devoured by the myriads of fleas whose irritating bite 

 effectually banishes the overtures of that sleep which is so necessary to 

 furnish strength to meet the labours of the morning's march. 



Often have I been reduced to banquet on a goat which might, for 

 ought* I know to the contrary, have been as aged as myself, and the 

 father of a goodly progeny, strong, tough, and sinewy, as well could 

 be; yet hunger is the best sauce, and bad as I might have thought 

 such fare, when better was procurable, I nevertheless have managed to 

 make a hearty meal off " sinewy Billy" and barley cakes, and blessed 

 my stars that matters were no worse. 



To recount the incidents of each day as I retraced my steps through 

 Spiti to Hungrung and Kunawur, would be merely to repeat what has 



