THE TOUR 333 



ranges must once have formed the bed of some van- 

 ished ocean. What countless ages must have passed 

 while that bed accumulated ; what aeons of centuries 

 must have gone by ere it was raised aloft and moulded 

 by the elements into the forms it now presents ! 



About midway in the pass there stands a rock which 

 is regarded by the natives as a great natural curiosity. 

 It is termed by them the "Summun Boorj," or "Octagon 

 Tower," the word "summun" being the Hindostanee 

 corruption of the Arabic term " musummin," that is, 

 "eight-sided." It was described to me, before I had 

 seen it, as a nearly exact counterpart of one of the 

 bastions of the Fort of Agra or of the palace of Delhi. 

 The description was, of course, much exaggerated ; still, 

 the rock being in shape roughly octagonal, and pro- 

 jecting from the flat surface of a perpendicular cliff, it 

 does really bear a curious resemblance to the bastion of 

 an Indian fortress. It is difficult to understand by what 

 process of weathering the rock could have acquired its 

 present shape. 



The march all the way was either level or a slight 

 descent, and the road, though a mere track, as in the 

 other pass, was less broken and more free from stones. 

 We moved in consequence much more rapidly. It was 

 early in the afternoon when we reached our encamping- 

 ground. It was a small open space, just beyond the 

 mouth of the pass. The next morning we proceeded 

 on to the bank of the Jumna. The march was very 

 uninteresting. For the first few miles it lay through a 

 forest, or rather what lately had been one ; but most of 

 the larger trees had been felled. The forest now con- 



