592 The Turaee and OuM' Mountains of Kumaoon. [June, 



as for Lohooghat, the garrison and the traveller there exist on the 

 verge of perpetual starvation ; the inhabitants appear to grow little 

 more than they require for themselves : and when the whole regiment 

 was quartered on Eastern Kumaoon, the glaring violations of the free 

 trade system were so frequent and extensive as to lead to constant dis- 

 satisfaction and almost open conflict between the pinched soldiery and 

 the oppressed peasantry ; affairs will now improve, as Kalee Kumaoon 

 has but to support two companies, aided by supplies from the plains. 



Each section of Shor valley has its stream : that to the south, named 

 Chundurbhaga, flows along the south end, and, joined by the branch 

 from the N. W. forms the Okul of the map, escaping south to the 

 Kalee by the temple and glen of Choupukhya. The outline of the 

 enclosing mountains is extremely bold and varied : their sides sloping 

 and grassy in some parts, steep as walls in others. To the east is the 

 Durge range, about 7000 feet high, connected on the N. with the 

 remarkable summit of Dhuj, upwards of 8000 feet high, with a con- 

 tour exactly similar to a section through a parapet. S. S. W. is the 

 long ridge of Thakil, with its three summits, the northern aspects still 

 showing a few patches of snow. To N. N. W. are the mountains over 

 which goes the direct road to Almorah, (viz. Bans, 9 miles : Gungo- 

 leehath, 13 : Nynee, 12 : Punwanoula, 10 : Almorah, 11,) andN. N. E. 

 is a bold and lofty cone, the Kotesur ka Devee, but better known to 

 the English residents as the " Drill" hill. It is reported to bear this 

 last appellation from the tradition that in days of yore, Colonel S. S. 

 was accustomed to punish delinquents in his regiment by ordering 

 them to trudge, in full panoply, to the top of this mountain, their 

 commanding officer, telescope in hand, superintending the distant 

 penance, in his own veranda ! The " Present Arms" was the signal 

 of its accomplishment, and poor Jack, "remote, unfriended, melancho- 

 ly, slow," returned to his lines a wearied and reformed man. 



In this direction runs the road to Byans ; the Chipula mountain, 

 13,500 feet high, the last ramification of the Punch Choola, closes the 

 horizon, which has now become so hazy that the snowy range is barely 

 visible. 



About 16 miles east of Pithoragurh, the Kalee is passed by an Iron 

 Suspension Bridge, the boundary between the British and Gorkhalee 

 territories, where each nation has a guard. The river is said to be 



