1848.] The Turaee and Outer Mountains of Kumaoon, 351 



had a smaller bridge or a larger river ; for above half the year, owing to 

 the heat of the valley, the route is forsaken by Europeans ; but is the 

 main line of intercourse by means of the native traders between Almo- 

 rah and Chilkiya, and that too in quite sufficient numbers to justify the 

 ■outlay. Be that as it may, their picturesque effect on the scenery is 

 undeniable ; while such works diffuse over the native mind, a most po- 

 tent impression of European superiority. The first sight of the Buliya 

 bridge near Bumouree, shaky enough, and much less handsome than 

 those of Jiaree, excited shouts of admiration from a company of Golun« 

 daz, who witnessed with perfect indifference the view of the Snowy 

 Tange from the Gagur Pass ; Nurayun was beaten on his own ground 

 by the Company Buhadoor. 



Beyond the Tipulee Dhoonga Bridge, there is a mile of steep narrow 

 road, carried along a chloritic precipice beetling over the Kosilla ; this 

 rock is exceedingly tough and occasioned much trouble. We now reach 

 the Khyrna river flowing north from the Nynee Tal ranges and Eastern 

 Gagur, in a wide stony channel, not a tithe of which is now occupied by 

 its brisk clear current — the cold flowing waters that come from a far 

 country — but which in the rains form a tremendous torrent, requiring a 

 third suspension Bridge, 48 paces over, and generally known as the 

 Munjera Bridge, from a neighbouring village, on the grounds of which 

 we encamped : an exceedingly cold spot in winter from the shade of the 

 adjacent mountains ; elevation 3000 feet, and severe hoar frost at night, 



The left bank of the Khyrna consists here of iron-stone (red haema- 

 tite) cliffs, which have been deeply mined in former days, but appear 

 to be unwrought at present. A blue crystalline limestone occurs on the 

 descent to the Jiaree Bridge, appearing also on the opposite side of the 

 same mountain between Ramgurh and Peoorah. Between the Jiaree and 

 Tipulee Dhoonga bridges, dykes of syenitic granite and greenstone pierce 

 and harden the quartzose strata along the right bank of the Kosilla, and 

 appear to have tilted them into a vertical position ; this forms the nearest 

 eruption of a granitic rock which we observed towards Nynee Tal. 



Below the Jiaree defiles, the Kosilla meanders through a rather wide, 

 cultivated valley, and finally escapes from the mountains by the Dhi- 

 liolee Pass above Chilkiya. In the warm season this valley is uninhabi- 

 table, and in the wet season the river, which must be repeatedly passed, 

 is unfordable ; but during the cold weather, when the Gagur Passes are 



2z2 



