414 The Turaee and Outer Mountains of Kumaoon. [May, 



dipping down an exceedingly steep cloof on Borakot village, 3000 feet 

 beneath; it has the disadvantage of a subsequent ascent of 1000 feet 

 to the bungalow. 



December 28ih. — From Iiamgar Bungalow to Peoorah, 9 or 10 miles. 

 The road dips 1000 feet to the level and rather open valley of the 

 Iiamgar stream, on the south or left bank of which was the original 

 bungalow, a singularly unhappy position, exceedingly hot in summer, 

 and, till warmed by the sun, as intolerably cold in winter. So cold 

 are these vallies at night, that at Hawulbagh, only 4000 feet above the 

 sea, and comparatively open, many plants are killed by frost, which 

 escape at Almorah, 1500 feet higher. 



A mile or so east of this, the road crosses to the north bank by an 

 iron suspension Bridge (elevation 5050 ft. R. S.), 200 feet above which 

 stands the village of Naikena or Ramgar, consisting of about 50 houses, 

 as neat and correct in externals as the character of the inhabitants is, 

 in our eyes, infamous. The place is the property and residence of a 

 community of hereditary and, in their own estimation, high-caste Pa- 

 turs, who keep up strong establishments at Almorah, Khilputee, &c. 

 tending in no small degree to the demoralization of the province, and 

 inflicting serious injury on the health and discipline of the troops in 

 garrison. Nor are they content with Kumaon, for each cold season, 

 this deplorable sisterhood detach some of their numbers to the various 

 cities of Rohilkhund. The female children are all brought up in the 

 profession of their mothers ; the boys become Naiks, as the men of 

 the village are called, who, in case of deficiency at home, get their 

 wives from the iron-masters of Agur: no respectable family would 

 think of an alliance with them : and Venus, as of old, marries with 

 Vulcan. 



From the bridge, there is rather a long ascent to what is called the 

 Ramgar Gallery, when the road keeps for two miles the S. E. face of 

 the hot and bare Lohakotee mountain, which rises fully a thousand feet 

 higher : immediately beneath flows the Ramgar in a narrow and preci- 

 pitous gorge formed by the Lohakotee and Sat-choolia mountains. Its 

 head waters are in the deep recess formed by the latter and Motesur, 

 on leaving which it irrigates the broad, undulating, and cultivated vale 

 of Agur, possessed by a race who for ages back have worked the iron 

 mines from which the Lohakotee mountain has its name. The old 



