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



a remarkable orange-colored cechreous rock, of rliomboidal cleavage, 

 and very low specific gravity. It strongly resembles the layers obser- 

 vable between the basaltic strata of Antrim, and is probably a clay- 

 slate altered by the action of trap, a vein of which comes to the surface 

 of the mountain a few hundred feet above the village ; at Ramesur 

 Bridge Dr. McClelland states the rock to be Hornblende slate : above 

 that it seemed to be chiefly limestone, with some slate and trap : and 

 Kunthagaon stands on slate highly inclined. No allusion to the presence 

 of greenstone hereabouts occurs in Captain Herbert's memoir. From 

 Goon to Pithora the rock is chiefly clayslate : this according to Dr s 

 McClelland forms the basis of Thakil : at Pithora, the rocks are slate and 

 limestone, the latter generally in tabular hills : at the base of Fort Lou- 

 don there are some trap boulders, which Herbert says were only detach- 

 ed from the crown of the hills when the works were raised about 1815. 



On the road side between Kunthagaon and Goon, the Phoenix syl- 

 vestris is to be seen in abundance, and of all heights, from* a mere 

 shrub to a tree of 30 feet : in the Sal forests of Choubhynsia, and 

 Poonagiri, it also grows abundantly as a shrub, as well as up to 5000 

 feet or more at Almorah : under this aspect, it seems to be the Phoenix 

 humilis of Royle. The steeps of Thakil towards Goon are also adorned 

 with a profusion of the magnificent Lilium Wallichianum " Findora," 

 growing six feet high, and producing 1, 2, and rarely 3 white blossoms, 

 occasionally a foot in length. The Edwardsia mollis, Himalayan Labur- 

 num, is now in full bloom in the same spots with a shrubhy ashy, species 

 of Desmodium? called " Shialee" and " Phoosur-puta," bearing yellow 

 flowers, which I have only seen here and at Jyaree, between 3000 and 

 4000 feet. The Pinus longifolia covers all the lower Thakil, with here 

 and there a Chestnut (Castanea tribuloides,) of which the zone is between 

 2000 and 6000 feet. A shrubhy Sapium occurs near Tholee village. 



Beyond Goon, the road quits the line of the Jameer and turning a 

 little to the right, passes up a pretty cultivated glen to Thokee, a group 

 of villages just below a low pass, on which is built one of the cairns 

 called " Kutputya," Thokee is the point from which pilgrims generally 

 ascend the Thakil, by a good path. A stream which rises between the 

 two highest cimes of the mountain here tumbles down a rocky recess 

 in a fine cascade : it is the highest source of the Jameer. The Thokee 

 pass leads down into the vale of Thurkot, a large village with consider- 



