1848.] The Turaee and Outer Mountains of Kumaoon. 395 



Huldwanee, not Bumouree, is the best and usual encampment for 

 troops : Bumouree is in fact altogether off the road to the N. W., and 

 Kath Godam, 3 miles north, at the very foot of the mountains, though 

 provided with a Buniya and a Bungalow, is extremely disagreeable from 

 the boisterous winds that blow down the Pass. 



Roodurpoor, about 20 miles S. of Huldwanee, rather a large and 

 pretty place, is most unhealthy, from the prevalence of deep swamps 

 and stagnant nullahs ; the forest reaches to within six miles of it ; the 

 grass and swamps extend S. as far as Manpoor, nearly 30 miles from 

 the mountains, being an excess of seven miles over the depth of the 

 malarious belt on the Moradabad and Nynee Tal line, and an addi- 

 tional argument in favor of the last. About November the herds of 

 cattle begin to assemble, and, as the grass is burnt, disperse over the 

 Turaee, feeding on the sweet and nutritious shoots which in 10 to 15 

 days, spring from the ashes. Till this general conflagration, such is 

 the height and thickness of the various Arundines, Sacchara, and other 

 rank grasses, many of them sufficiently tall to conceal an elephant and 

 its rider, that this region is impenetrable. In autumn their innumera- 

 ble waving white plumes convert the prairies into boundless " seas of 

 milk," if indeed the Indian expression was not rather derived, as an 

 ingenious friend suggests, from the seas of white clouds feeling up all 

 the vallies, and seen from some "heaven kissing hill" of the Himalaya. 

 My visit to the Bhabur was at an unfavourable season for identifying 

 the Graminese, but the following seemed the most conspicuous. 



Saccharum spontaneum : «' Kas," " Jusha," " Jhansh." 



Saccharum semidecumbens : " Tat." t( Neja," its grass, " Mora." 

 The culms are used for screens, and supply Kumaoon with pens. It 

 is the " Kilik" of the Plains, Oude, &c. from " Kil," to be white. 



Saccharum Munja : "Moonj." The blade beaten and twisted, 

 makes a strong rope : the culm is " Sirkee." 



Saccharum sara and exaltatum : " Surhur," " Suroor." 



Arundo karka : " Nul :" " Nul-toora :" to 5000 feet. 



Arundo? " Khyla :" "Khylooa:" said to intoxicate and 



even poison cattle fed on it : to 3500 feet in the mountains. 



Anthistiria arundinacea : " Oolloo," " Kunyoor," " Kundoora :" to 

 3000 feet. 



Andropogon muricatus : f ' Gandur" — the roots " Khus" — the culm 

 " Seenk." 



