^10 The Turaee and Outer Mountains of Kumaoon. [May, 



the Saint's wife, is often applied to the Goula river. There is no decent 

 proof, indeed, that any other wife ever existed, or that the Saint himself 

 is not as imaginary a personage as his putative father. The Sanscrit 

 root, gri, to sprinkle, to wet, seems to supply a more easy and natural 

 derivation for the name, or " gurgur," making a gurgling noise ; in 

 allusion to the heavy rains which deluge the mountain and their result 

 in innumerable streams. The Gagur is therefore the Indian Gargarus. 



A pretty steep descent of 1300 feet down the north side of the 

 mountains brings us to the Ramgar Bungalow, built on a plot of culti- 

 vated ground called Gujooteena, 5950 feet above Calcutta (R. S.) 

 There is little space for the encampment of troops, but here, as at the 

 other stages on this route, some shelter is provided in the way of sub- 

 stantial slated sheds, here called " Barracks," originally mule-sheds, 

 which are available to passengers generally, and very useful in the cold 

 and wet seasons. A Buniy a is stationed at each Bungalow. Water, natur- 

 ally scarce and distant, is brought down from the Pass to the Bungalow 

 by wooden pipes. From its northern exposure, the climate here is 

 colder than would be expected from the elevation. There is not much 

 in the way of scenery ; the bare, brown mountain of Lohakotee rising 

 in front to perhaps 7500 feet, eclipses the snows : but to the S. E. 

 the Sat-choolia or Sut-boonga, summits of the Eastern Gagur, are fine, 

 not a little resembling Jukoo as seen from Elysium at Simlah, and 

 (8450) nearly the same height. 



From below Jureepanee to the crest of the Pass, and on the north 

 side for 2200 feet down to the Ramgar valley, the Gagur Range is 

 composed of syenitic greenstone, with occasional beds of clay and chlo- 

 rite slate : at Jureepanee we also find masses of the identical syenite 

 which has been erupted at the Binsur Muhadeo, and which Lt. R. 

 Strachey informs me also forms the Surjoo base of that mountain. The 

 Gagur syenitic greenstone extends eastward to the foot of Sat-choolia, 

 and westward along the range traversed by the new road from the Pass 

 towards Nynce Tal, which crosses the Ninglat stream at about 5500 

 feet, just where it enters the Shamket Gorge before mentioned : the 

 flanks of this exhibit the greenstone much decomposed into rhomboidal 

 fragments, finally merging, as at the Sat-choolia, into the quartzosc 

 rocks of Lurria Kanta. It thus forms perhaps the greatest formation 

 of greenstone yet observed in the Himalaya. 



