SURVEY OF THE GANGES. 51o 



liad been sent to repair the breaches. Along the banks of a deep water 

 course, at some distance from the Alacanandd, were several large rocky 

 caves, which had been widened by the pilgrims, many of whom had taken 

 up a temporary residence here. Some of these cells were capable of con- 

 taining one hundred and fifty or two hundred people. To the right wa^ 

 a cascade, falling from the height of sixty or seventy feet. 



On the road to-day, we observed a great number of bilberry and bar-= 

 berry bushes with ripe fruit. The former possesses rather an agreeable 

 flavor, the latter has an insipid sweetness, and entirely wants the pungent 

 acidity of the £z/ro/)^ fruit. In its first stage of maturity, it assumes an 

 azure blue colour, which changes to a dark purple. It is covered with a 

 rich bloom, and attains the size of a common field pea. 



The heavy continued rain, which we had experienced, for three or four 

 days, made us apprehensive that the periodical wet season had already set 

 in ; but we were informed, by the natives, that, in the neighbourhood of 

 these mountains, the changes of the moon, at this time of the year, are 

 always brought in by violent thunder-storms and showers ; and that we 

 had yet twenty days to make good our retreat from these hilly regions. 



26th. Therm. 61''. Marched to Salilr, where we encamped near, a 

 spring, in a small rice field, about mid-way up the mountain. The road 

 was, in some parts, elevated to the height of three or four thousand feet 

 above the bed of the river ; and the mountains, covered with snow, were 

 at the distance of only eight or ten miles. We had a small thick rain, 

 and the weather was piercingly cold. The latter part of the route, lay 

 through a forest of pines, Burdns and oak, with a few walnut trees thinly 

 scattered among them. 



