568 The Turaee and Outer Mountains of Kumaoon. [June, 



that Bruhm did penance— not Brahma the Creator, who in these 

 parts is reduced, under the designation of Choumookhee, to the office 

 of an agricultural care-taker, — hut the Supreme Being himself. No one 

 can say for what purpose he did so : but a Hindoo is never at a loss 

 for a reason, and when twitted with the peccadilloes of his gods, will 

 reply that they were always well whipped for them : and if gods do not 

 escape punishment, how much less men ! a conclusion more ingenious 

 than sound. Burmdeo is given as one of the Kutyoor rajas, and the 

 place may have been named from him. Except in the unhealthy sea- 

 son, Burm Deo is not a scene for penance ; it is on the contrary, placed 

 at the gorge of perhaps the most magnificent portal to the Himalaya. 

 The Kumaoon chain, bold, lofty, and scarped, with a superb glacis of 

 forest along its base, here meets the Dotee mountains at a right angle ; 

 these, if possible, clothed in still thicker forest, extend north and south, 

 running far down in this last direction, with the Kalee flowing at their 

 foot so closely as to leave our restless neighbours scarce room for their 

 Mundee. The river indifferently known as the Kalee, Surjoo, Sarda, 

 Ghughra, winds its way through the angle to the N. E., where the 

 mountains on the Kumaoon side are scarped into lofty walls and pinna- 

 cles, on the topmost of which, about 8 miles distant, is the far-famed 

 shrine of Poonagiri, where Devee is adored by pilgrims from mountains 

 and plains. Behind this, the magnificent mountain of Nalee-mun rises 

 far above the forest : on its western flank is the pass to Chumpawut. 



The Kalee opposite the Mundee, is about 100 yards across, and from 

 10 to 15 feet deep, perfectly clear and flowing with a strong steady 

 current, like the music of Mira O Norma ; it is now about 20 feet below 

 its level in the wet season : the only means of passing are four canoes, 

 the hollowed trunks of Semul trees, two of which are ours, the others 

 belong to the Gorkhas. During the malarious season, or from May, 

 when Burm Deo becomes a solitude, the boats are hauled out and laid 

 up in ordinary. Below Burm Deo the river wanders amongst a laby- 

 rinth of low stony islands covered with Seesoo ; they belong to the 

 King of Oude, and are called " Chandnee Chok," apparently in jest. 

 Great quantities of Sal, Seesoo, Bamboos, &c. are floated down from 

 the mountains, and 30 miles below this, the river becomes permanently 

 navigable at Moondia Ghat, the Gurhmooktesur of the Surjoo. It is 

 described as flowing between steep, well-defined banks, through a beau- 



