2f>(> Notea of an Excursion to the Pindree Glacier. [March, 



expelled and slain certain dragons and serpents, the original occupants.* 

 Above this cave, the right bank also becomes undulating, and exhibits 

 the trace of a road which formerly led to the glacier, till the bridge 

 was carried away ; the slopes there are covered with low thickets, 

 probably of Rhododendron lepidotum, but the unfordable river for- 

 bade all examination. In the north-west Himalaya, the passes, con- 

 trary to the fact here, are all gained by the north-west banks of the 

 streams ; here in general the eastern bank is most accessible. One 

 circumstance remains constant, which is the comparatively level bed of 

 the river below the glacier ; from its source to the cave nearly, the 

 Pindur flows along a wide channel, overspread with gravel and stones, 

 the product doubtless of the glacier, which has no terminal moraine ; 

 its waters are exceedingly turbid, and though diminished above by the 

 dozens of cascades, which of all sizes, and at all distances, rush down 

 from the snow, are quite impassable. The spot called Pinduree is rather 

 an open, undulating piece of ground, covered with grass, docks, and the 

 ubiquitous Shepherd's Purse, in an amphitheatre of crags, with many 

 snow-beds along their bases. Here I found the remnants of a hut, 

 which supplied fuel, and at 10 a. m. started for the head of the glacier 

 and the source of the Pindur (this last about 10 minutes' walk distant, 

 but visited last,) which took me exactly three hours to accomplish. 

 From the breakfasting ground the ascent is rather steep, over rough, 

 and occasionally pasture land, covered with Sibbaldia, Salix Lindleyana, 

 a low shrubby astragalus, the yellow aromatic Tanacetum, the dwarf 

 white Helichrysum, an Iris ? a garlic-like allium, and two most abun- 

 dant and beautiful blue Gentians. The glacier lay to the west, and be- 

 tween us and it, rose a lofty moraine, along the hither or east base of 

 which flows a considerable stream, the source of which is much more 

 remote than that of the Pindur, which it joins one or two hundred 

 yards below its exit from the ice. Having ascended perhaps a thou- 

 sand feet, we struck off to the left, and crossing the moraine, which is 

 here about 150 feet high, descended to the glacier, and with infinite 



* During the heavy snow which fell in Kumaoon in February 1807, from 40 to 

 50 Kakur are reported to have taken refuge in a cave near Loba, when they were 

 killed by the peasantry. Had the bad weather continued, and these deer been 

 starved, we should probably have one illustration of the manner in which Bone 

 Caverns have been stocked. 



