554 Journal in the Sub-Himalaya. 



wretched village, yet it had two or three temples, as appears to be the 

 case in almost every one, and we were lodged in one of them, which 

 was smaller than usual, but much better than a tent. Therm, at 3 

 p.m. 60°, at 5 p.m. 59°, at 7 p.m. 57°, at 9 p.m. 57°. 



23rd. Rogee district, Shooal — 7 coss, height 9,096 feet. Therm, 

 at 6 a.m. 53°. The country very craggy yet not without wood. Our 

 elevation is becoming gradually higher ; and we breakfasted near a 

 precipitous torrent, on the banks of which were large masses of snow, 

 and just below us there was a natural bridge of that substance, 

 formed probably by an avalanche. After breakfast we had a long as- 

 cent up a steep mountain, and then to pass along its face, passing 

 over some large sheets of snow, the depth of a man's waist, but hard 

 enough to allow us to walk without sinking. This snow was melting, 

 and the water running down loosened the stones and rubbish which 

 kept up a constant clatter, but the hill not being very steep just here, 

 it did not produce any effect. After gaining the top of this mountain, 

 we had to go down the other side of it in a diagonal direction to Rogee, 

 meeting with another large sheet of snow. On the opposite side of the 

 river I observed the track of an avelanche. The snow appeared to 

 have given way about the middle of the mountain, and to have swept 

 every thing before it for a considerable breadth, till it reached the 

 Sutledge, on the edge of which it lay covered with earth, trees, &c. 

 Rogee is a poor village, and they have but one temple, so that we 

 could not be accommodated ; and for want of room elsewhere, we were 

 obliged to pitch our tent on the top of an empty house in which our 

 baggage was deposited. It appears, that the second temple we ob- 

 served in each village, is only visited by the deity on great festivals, 

 when he is carried thither in a kind of palankeen. Here is also fre- 

 quently a little open wooden house in front of the temple, in which 

 the idol is sometimes placed. There was a family close to us, in 

 which there were two very good-looking girls. The eldest was a 

 tall and really elegant figure. They appeared clean and respectably 

 dressed (a rare thing among the females we have lately seen), and 

 modest without being so ridiculously bashful, as we have usually 

 found them. Grain is becoming very dear. They would not give 

 us more than 1 6 seers of wheat-flour for a Rupee, and 20 seers of 

 barley. They make no difference between the price of grain and 



