126 NOUBOOG NYE. 



dered down it. Not many yards ahead was another gully 

 they would have to cross, but ere they had recovered from 

 their astonishment, to their dismay a similar avalanche rattled 

 down it also. Most probably both had been the result of a 

 landslip far above, which had, in some providential manner, 

 been diverted to either side of them in its descent, or they 

 must have been swept down by it. 



Our next day's tramp was, at first, across a low range cov- 

 ered with wood, and then up the valley of Nouboog, to a little 

 hamlet consisting of a few log-built huts, much resembling 

 the ruder kind of Swiss chalets. The scenery of this long 

 narrow " strath," as it would have been called in Scotland, or 

 " nye," as it is here termed, is surpassingly lovely. Flanked 

 on either side by high hills, on which broad tracts of deodar 

 cedars and tall sombre-hued pines alternate with rocky steeps 

 or green sloping glades, it extends up towards the Mergun 

 pass into Wurdwan. Mulberry - trees, weeping and pollard 

 willows, 1 overhang the clear brawling stream that meanders 

 through it, between banks of velvet-like turf. Here and there 

 along the base of the mountains, picturesque groups of log- 

 built houses lie nestling among groves of grand old walnut 

 and chenar trees. Early in summer an additional charm is 

 lent to the beauty of this glen by the ground being carpeted 

 with both red and white clover, and by the wild indigo plant, 

 which grows there in great profusion, being in flower, its 

 purple blossom looking, at a distance, like luxuriant blooming 

 heather. 



As we wended our way upward the prospect each moment 

 grew more charming. Over the dark pine-forest and green 

 birch woods rose the bald grey crags and snow-covered crests 

 of the range we were about to cross before entering Wurdwan, 

 their rugged features all softened by a delicate blue haze. 



1 Willow-trees, which grow abundantly in the Cashmere valley, are generally 

 cut down into pollards, the young shoots being stored and used as winter fodder 

 for cattle. 



