228 Notes of an Excursion to the Pindree Glacier. [March, 



ria indica, Curculigo orchioides, and Fritillaria Thomsoniana, all reach 

 up to this point, and are abundant. 



Hence, the route follows the neck which joins Kaleemuth with Bin- 

 sur ; about two miles on, a Cairn, called " Kutputiya," occurs on the 

 left hand ; these heaps of stones are raised where three ways meet, 

 many of the people considering it meritorious to add a stone ; a cus- 

 tom well known to this day amongst the Celtic tribes of western 

 Europe.* Soon after passing the Cairn, the road quits the Binsur 

 route, and after passing Jak village, crosses by a rocky ascent the 

 western spur of Binsur, called Bhynsooree Cheena ; the northern 

 aspect of this is covered with pretty thick woods of Rhododendron, 

 Andromeda, &c. through which we descended to a glen, extensively 

 cultivated, where a stream from Binsur joins the Takoola from Gunna- 

 nath. The united stream is a rapid burn, which joins the Kosilla above 

 Hawulbagh : our route lay sometimes on one, sometimes on the other 

 bank, and not unfrequently in the stream itself. Rice is abundantly pro- 

 duced along the banks, and the Kodah on the higher grounds. This 

 is a late crop, and suffers much from the bears ; it is now infested by 

 a considerable number of locusts, which we found daily hence to the 

 snows. 



Sutralee is the name of a district belonging to the astrologers of 

 Almorah $ and in the midst of abundance, the traveller finds himself 

 like Sancho Panza, in danger of starving ; for these " gods of the earth'* 

 are infinitely more liberal with their horoscopes and predictions 

 of good weather and fortune than with their supplies of grass, 

 ghee, and flour. We encamped in a confined but pretty spot, 

 surrounded by woody spurs from Binsur and Gunnanath, neither of 

 which is visible ; a rivulet from the former has cut a deep perpendicular 

 gorge in the rock, on the brink of which are some old temples dedi- 

 cated to Umba Debee, from whom the place is called Umkholee. A 



* One is constantly struck in India with the identity of the customs and ideas 

 of its population with those of Europe, ancient and modern. A few years since at 

 the Jeypoor Durbar, the sitting was prolonged to so late an hour that it became ne- 

 cessary to introduce lights, on which all the chiefs got up and saluted each other, 

 as if they had met for the first time in the morning. One of them told me it was a 

 common custom Thirlwall incidentally mentions the very same as having been 

 usual amongst the ancient Greeks. 



