17 
Source of' the Jumna . 
yet I found the place by no means an uncomfortable abode, for 
the heights near it shelter it from the violence of the winds. 
The sun is pleasantly warm in the middle of the day, and the 
progress of vegetation is rapid, in proportion to the length of 
the winter. The rocky and snowy defile called the Jumnotri , 
where the Jumna originates, is seen in the direction of N. 4 2° 
east. Distant 3 miles. Latitude of Cursali 30° 57' 19''*” 
On the 21st April, Captain Hodgson went from Cursali to 
Jumnotri, a distance of 2 miles 7 furlongs. He ascended, at 
Bhairo-Ghati, the steepest ascent he ever met with, by cutting 
steps in the snow with spades. He then descended a steep 
path, by steps cut in the snow, to the Jumna, where a cascade 
of the stream cuts through the snow, and falls from a rock 
about 50 feet high. Excepting where the stream is visible for 
a few yards, through a hole in the snow, the snow-bed is about 
100 yards wide, and bounded by high precipices, from which 
masses of rock of 40 feet in length have recently fallen. 
u At Jumnotri , the snow, which covers and conceals the stream, 
is about 60 yards wide, and is bounded to the right and left by 
mural precipices of granite ; it is 40 feet 5J inches thick, and 
has fallen from the precipices above. In front, at the distance 
of about 500 yards, part of the base of the great Jumnotri 
mountain rises abruptly, cased in snow and ice, and shutting up 
and totally terminating the head of this defile, in which the 
Jumna originates. I was able to measure the thickness of the 
bed of snow over the stream very exactly, by means of a plumb 
line let down through one of the holes in it, which are caused 
by the steam of a great number of boiling springs which are at 
the border of the Jumna . The snow is very solid, and hard 
frozen ; but we found means to descend through it to the Jumna , 
by an exceedingly steep and narrow dark hole made by the 
steam, and witnessed a very extraordinary scene, for which I 
was indebted to the earliness of the season, and the unusual quan- 
tity of snow which has fallen this year. When I got footing at 
the stream, (here only a large pace wide), it was some time be- 
fore I could discern any thing, on account of the darkness of the 
place, made more so by the thick steam ; but having some white 
lights with me, I fired them, and, by their glare, was able to see 
VOL. IX. N O. 17. JULY 1823, B 
