1844.] CapL Herbert's Tour from Almorak, tyc. 739 



215/ Nov. — No. 21. Olive green chlorite schist. 



No. 22. Dark green ditto. 



No. 23.* A vein of gneiss in preceding, a beautiful rock. 



22d Nov. — To camp in jungle, owing to the stupidity of the sepoy 

 who went on. We had a hard day's work of it, the ascent to the 

 Passf occupying 5 hours, the first few miles were easy with good road, 

 but the latter was for the rest of the way very bad, chiefly in the bed 

 of a torrent, Guroor-Gunga, which we crossed and recrossed about one 

 dozen times. Latterly, leaving its bed, the road ascends one of the 

 spurs thrown out by the high ridge, when it improves a little. There 

 is, or was, a pool on the top of the ridge where we expected to find the 

 camp, but had to descend about a mile on the western side, where 

 I found breakfast prepared, but no ground or place fit for a tent. 

 After breakfast, went on 2 hours farther, the descent most steep, and in 

 many places even dangerous. At last, we came to a tolerably level 

 spot where was water, and where I pitched for the night. An extra- 

 ordinary feature in this descent was the deficiency of water even 

 where the ground was a little level. Barometer on the Pass, 22.82 ; 

 54,49, 40, at 11 a. m. 



The rocks, as the preceding days, anomalous, sometimes verging on 

 gneiss, sometimes on chlorite slate, but most generally quartz rocks, 

 all the fragments too, of which there are an immense number, both 

 on the ascent and descent, belong to the last named species. Very few 

 examples of strata, or indeed of the rock in situ at all. One on the 

 ascent was observed N. 60 E., (direction N. 30 W.), angle of incli- 

 nation 75. A wild bee's nest was observed, which had been robbed 

 by a bear or other wild animal. The bee is of a different species 

 from the cultivated, much smaller, and marked with yellow rings. 

 It is said to be much more vicious ; the domestic bee seldom or ever 

 stinging, the other severely. The cells of the honeycomb were hexan- 

 gular. This is the third species of bee I have observed in these hills.J 



* This should be 1775. 



t This Pass is over the Bhutkot and Pinnath range of mountains, visible N. VV. 

 from Almora, very high, from 9,200 feet to 7,500 feet above the sea. — J. H. B. 



X It is somewhat strange that Dr. McClelland in his " Enquiries into the Geology 

 of Kumaon," blames the people for using only wild honey instead of domesticating 

 the bee. Nearly every house in the province has bee-hives, and the honey is excellent 

 in some places, and a profitable article of trade. — J. II. B. 



5 G 



