224 HAUNTS AND HOBBIES 



worshippers flock in by thousands, most of them 

 coming from the Punjaub. 



Having described the tomb of the Gooroo, it remains 

 to say a few words regarding the small monastic estab- 

 lishment to the members of which the custody of the 

 tomb is confided ; but this I will reserve to a later 

 occasion. I will now give an account of what then 

 was regarded as the most interesting of the sights of 

 Dehra, namely, the Government tea plantations. They 

 were situated about a mile from the town of Dehra, 

 on the other side of a large watercourse, one of a kind 

 nearly peculiar to the Doon, and there known by the 

 designation of " roas." For the greater part of the 

 year these " roas " are mere deep dry gullies or wide 

 expanses of sand and rounded stones. Along the 

 centre of some of the broadest, perhaps a tiny stream 

 may trickle ; but during the rainy season, when a storm 

 occurs in the mountains, then presently the roas become 

 each a raging torrent. 



I shall presently give some further account of the 

 "roas," but just now I will proceed on to the tea planta- 

 tions, and will conduct with me in imagination the 

 reader as well. 



The plantations — I am describing them as they then 

 existed — were very large, extending over an area of 

 several hundred acres ; they were also exceedingly 

 pretty, so pretty, indeed, that they always seemed to 

 almost realize one's childish conception of fairyland. 

 There were fruit trees of all kinds, green lawns, hedges 

 of aloes and hedges covered with roses, beds full of the 

 gayest of flowers, long, low white buildings that glistened 



