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CRC stifi fiCE
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rta
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4
VITIT TIT,f
in reaching that spot where the
Alaknanda is
said to take its
rise. But once there, finding myself surrounded
by
lofty hills
on all sidos, and being a stranger in the country, my progress,
from that moment, was greatly retarded. Very soon, the road
ceased abruptly and I found no vestige
of even a
path. I
was thus at a loss what to do next, but I determined finally to
cross the river and enquire for my way. I was poorly and
thinly clad, and the cold was intense
and
soon became into-
lerable. Feeling hungry and thirsty, I tried to deceive my
hunger by swallowing a piece of ice, but found no relief. I
then
began to ford the river. In sonic places it was very deep,
in
others shallow —not deeper than a cubit—but from eight to
ten cubits
wide. The
river-bed was covered with small
and
fragmentary bits of ice which wounded and cut my naked
feet
to blood. Very
luckily
the cold had quite benumbed them,
and
even large bleeding cracks lef me insensible for a while.
Slipping on the ice
more
than once, I lost my footing and came
nearly falling down and thus
freezing to
death on the spot.
For, should I have fundmyself prostrated on the ice, I
realized that,
benumbed
as I was all
over, I
would
find it
very
difficult to
rise again.
However, with great exertion, and
after a terrible struggle, I
managed to get safe enough on the
other bank. Once
there more
dead than alive, I
hastened to
denude the whole upper part of my
body ; and, with all I had
of clothes
on me, to wrap my feet up to the knees and
then-
exhausted, famished,
unable to move. I stood waiting for
help, and knowing not
whence it
would come.
At
last, throwing
a last look around me, I espied two hillmen, who came up and
having greeted me
with their
"Kashisamba" invited me to
follow them to
their home,
where I would find food. Learning
my trouble,
they,
moreover, promised to guide me to "Sadpat"
a very
sacred place ; but I refused their
offers, for I could
not,
walk,
Not with standing their
pressing
invitation I
remained
firm and would not "take courage" and
follow
them
as they
wanted
me ;
but, after telling
them that I would rather
die,
refused
even to listen to them.
The idea
had
struck me that
I had better
return and prosecute
my studies. The two men
then left
me and soon disappeared
among the hills. Having
rested, I proceeded on
my way back.
Stopping for a few
minutes
at Basudhara, a sacred bathing place,
and passing
by
the neighbourhood u-f Monogram, I reached Badrinarayan
at