CHAPTER II. 



Kashmiri Iris. 



THERE are few views more 

 striking, even among the wonder- 

 ful scenes in the Himalaya, than 

 the valley in which Mataiyan is 

 situated, as seen when you are 

 coming from Kashmir. In the 

 first place, you have entered quite 

 a new country as soon as you 

 have crossed the Zogi Pass. The 

 smiling landscapes of Kashmir 

 have been left behind, with their 

 pine-clad slopes and fertile valleys, and you see 

 before you a wilderness of desolate hillsides and 

 stony wastes. The reason is, of course, that the 

 rain-charged clouds brought up by the monsoon 

 winds are stopped by the barrier of the Main 

 Range, and it is curious to observe how, within a 

 few miles of the Pass, the vegetation decreases and 

 gradually ceases, so that by the time that you arrive 

 at Dras,.the next camping-ground after Mataiyan, 

 you are in the midst of true Thibetan scenery- 

 rocky precipices and pinnacles, with slopes and 



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