THE BEAUTIFUL JIIELUM. 93 



Every traveller by the Murree route to Cashmere must 

 l)e as much struck as we were with the romantic beauty of 

 that part of it between Uri and Baramoola, where, for the 

 hist eighteen miles or so before reaching the valley, the 

 path winds through shady woods of deodar cedars, horse- 

 cliestnuts, and other grand forest-trees, or thickets of haw- 

 thorn and wild-rose bushes, where steep sloping acclivities 

 ;ind craggy pine-clad heights flank it on the right, whilst on 

 the left the river Jhelum rushes by with a deafening roar, 

 which resounds among the mountains rising lofty, and often 

 snow-capped, on either side of the contracted and winding 

 valley through which that splendid river here flows. The 

 tremendous volume of water tears and surges along, in some 

 places taking the form of a raging cataract, in others churn- 

 ing itself into broad sheets of seething foam. The Cash- 

 merees have it that the beautiful Jhelum gives vent to these 

 mad caprices by way of showing her wrath at being forced 

 to quit their lovely valley, through which she flows so 

 tranquilly. And should the wayfarer have an archaeological 

 bent, he can here find, half hidden among trees, and much 

 overgrown by their gnarled old roots, some curious ruins — 

 so ancient as to be of doubtful origin — to interest him as he 

 rests by the roadside. 



Nor can any one with an eye for the beautiful look un- 

 moved on the charming scene that suddenly presents itself 

 as he reaches the brow of the hill, whence the road slopes 

 gently down to the pretty village of Baramoola.-^ How 

 changed is the river Jhelum — now looking smooth and 

 bright as burnished metal — where, as it winds tortuously 

 over the green expanse lying below, it resembles a huge 

 silver serpent issuing from the Woolar lake lying dark and 

 blue along the base of the distant snow-crested mountains, 

 among which square-topped Haramook towers like a hoary 

 old giant above his smaller dependants ! And the numerous 

 hamlets that are dotted over the verdant plain, what pleas- 



^ Since then earthquakes have, I am told, made sad havoc with this place. 



