250 Notes of an Excursion to the Pindi'ee Glacier. [March, 



to fall from this time for no less than 75 hours without a break ! This 

 deluge came from the east, and prevailed over all Kumaoon, and no 

 doubt much farther ; it made us prisoners in our narrow tent till 5 p. m . 

 on the 20th, when the clouds cleared away before a west wind. During 

 this period, the smallest rivulets became unfordable, and the Pindur and 

 Kuphinee were swollen into the most turbulent, turbid and ungovern- 

 able torrents. Up near its source I afterwards observed that the for- 

 mer had risen from 15 to 20 feet, and lower down where the bed is 

 more contracted, and had received countless accessions, it was probably 

 double this ; accordingly at 2 p. m. on the 20th we were not surprised 

 by a shout from our people that the Kuphinee bridge was swept away ; 

 and in a few hours, our worst fears were confirmed that both bridges 

 over the Pindur had shared the same fate, after standing uninjured for 

 the last 4 or 5 years. This Ram Singh was pleased to call " burra tum- 

 asha," but it was death to some of us, and would have placed us in a 

 most serious dilemma as to provisions, had not a flock of sheep and 

 goats, returning from the summer pastures, been fortunately arrested 

 in the same spot as ourselves, utterly cut off from any escape to the 

 south by two savage rivers, and with no means of advance to the north 

 except over the hopeless pass to Milum, barely practicable in the best 

 weather. It was an unlucky emergency for the flock, as during our 

 imprisonment in this slough of despair, we and our followers ate six, 

 and the bears seven of them. The destruction of the bridges isolated 

 our party in three distinct groups : one in the peninsula, a second on 

 the left bank of the Kuphinee, while the third, driven thence on the 

 night of the 18th by the waters invading their oodiyar or cave, had 

 crossed to the right bank of the Pindur, and taken up their residence 

 in a cave between the two bridges. These, when the bridges went, 

 were intercepted from all aid ; those across the Kuphinee were sup- 

 ported by " fids" of mutton and goat flesh, which we flung over ; but 

 without salt or flour ; this food disagreed much with all our people, 

 and when supplies reached us, it was curious to observe how every one 

 eagerly demanded salt. On the 21st, the eight men across the Pindur, 

 contrived to clamber down the right bank, till at a spot about two miles 

 short of Khathee, they found a place where its force was somewhat 

 diminished by the current being divided into three streams : these, 

 four of them determined to cross, and had actually got over two, but 



