532 A JOURNEY TO LAKE. 



the great lofs in. the population of Garuhdl, prohibiting the foldiers; 

 from taking any of the inhabitants as flaves : but this was wholly dis- 

 regarded, and the foldiers always efcaped the punifhment with which 

 they had been threatened. Living in free quarters, without receiving 

 any check for his conduct, the foldiers had, the old man obferved, fo> 

 far opprefled the country, that where there were formerly twenty-Eve 

 families, now only one was to be found:, 



November i ft. —The jarradars from AlmoracamQ at an: early hour to 

 report that orders had arrived from Bam Sah to. return all the things 

 which had been taken from us ; and. after the l«pfe of about two- 

 hours, they returned with the guns, &c. ; we now found ourfelves in the 

 way to liberty, and refolved not again to part with our arms except 

 with our lives. This day our hill fervants arrived. The old Pandit and: 

 his nephew were in irons, but were furnifhed with victuals by 

 Bam Sah, 



November 2d. — Hoar froft. Thermometer 36 . Night fjo°. We 

 made preparations for marching at c/ 15', left Mehelchowri ; andafcend- 

 ed the Sobha pafs. At the foot of the defcent from the Sobha pafs is the 

 Khatfur valley, and half way down is a knoll of calcareous rock, the 

 weilern fide of which about thirty feet high, and overhanging the bafe 5 

 forms a fhallow cavern attributed to one of the S&rs. From chinks in 

 the (lone exudes a fmall quantity of black bitumen. The Khatfurt 

 valley is about a mile broad: in the middle the edges are full of fprings,. 

 the water of which is collected for irrigating the flats. This valley 

 produces the Bunfmati rice, next in quantity to that of Chookimi, and 

 would give vail crops of hemp of the fined quality. We pitched on a 

 rice flat, on the right bank of the Rdmgangd, oppofite to a fmall village 

 called Jhalak Kangh Singh overtook us here with. a letter from Bam:. 



