184/.] Notes of an Excursion to the Pindree Glacier. 245 



hemmed in by exceedingly steep and lofty mountains, either covered 

 with grass or enveloped in dark forest. On the N. W., about 300 feet 

 below, the Pindur roars along its narrow gully, up which, whenever the 

 clouds cleared a little, several high snowy and black rocky peaks of the 

 great range appeared close at hand. Water boiled at 1 95|-°, making 

 the elevation about 9,000 feet ; but as the thermometer gave the same 

 result at Diwalee, 10 miles up the valley, and certainly 500 feet higher, 

 8,500 feet is perhaps the true height of Khathee. The place is a per- 

 fect bear-garden ; we had not been an hour in camp, before one appeared 

 on the opposite bank of the river, feeding quietly on the locusts. 

 Messrs. Ellis and Corbett have seen half a dozen daily, and on the 

 afternoon of the 16th bagged one of them about half a mile from camp. 

 The mountaineers hold them in great dread and are unanimous in 

 asserting that they not only devour sheep and goats, but even their 

 own species when found dead. They are very fond of the mountain 

 \sh, or Rowan fruit. 



The species found here is the common black bear, called indifferent- 

 ly Bhaloo and Reech, terms which Mr. Ogilvy (in Koyle's Illustrations) 

 is inclined to think mark two kinds. 



The argus and other pheasants are also common in the woods. 



The vegetation on our route this day, and about Khathee, is wholly 

 different from that which we have just parted from in the valley of the 

 Surjoo. About 500 feet above Sooring, the Hemiphragma heterophyl- 

 la began to show itself, scarcely as long as its own name ; its godfather 

 was fond of such, and Don observes justly of another of his appellations 

 <l Nomen Spermadictyonis nimis amis terribile est servandum." My 

 friend Pilgrim was not so far out, botanically at least, when he compar- 

 ed the Nynee Tal mountains to the Himalaya. On Cheena we find the 

 Kurshoo oak, (Quercus Semicarpifolius,) and on the flat summit of 

 the mountain, this very Hemiphragma ; lower down the Pyrus baccata 

 is common by streams, as it is about Khathee and in the Beans coun- 

 try, everywhere under the same name, Bun-mehul, or wild pear. As 

 we advance to the S. E. in these mountains, the various plants, &c. 

 seem not only to occur at lower elevations, but to approach the plains 

 more and more, till in Assam, some of them descend to the valley. In 

 the mountains of Busehur, this Hemiphragma is scarce found under 

 10,000 feet; here it is common at 8,000, Primula denticulata and 



2 L 



