GODWIN-AUSTEN KASHMEEE. 227 



the Pingal Range ; the correspondence between the opposite sides is 

 supposed to show this. It is perfectly clear, however, that the great 

 accumulation of boulders, angular rocks, and detritus to be found 

 there has been brought down from the slopes and ravines on either 

 side. 



Sir-nugger, Sept. 3. — I went from Sir-nugger by boat to Dola- 

 mabad. Nothing much worth noticing on the way ; the river flow- 

 ing between high banks of alluvium, which shut out everything. 

 The next day, 18th (the day of the Eclipse), I visited the ruins at 

 Avantipur — a most curious place — the site of the old capital of 

 Kashmere. In the old time the city was on the edge of a lake 

 which must have occupied a large space in the valley, as below the 

 city, where the river has now cut the ground away and exposed sec- 

 tions, may be seen thick layers of sand with broken pottery and 

 bones, &c. This must have been near the place where, at that time, 

 the women brought down their gharohs (water-pots), morning and 

 evening, to fill, and when, as is the case now, great numbers are 

 broken. The great thickness and numbers of these beds show that 

 the lake must have changed its level by degrees, in periods of some 

 duration. 



Another curious feature of this place is — that, close by, a large 

 temple (often noticed) has been Kterally buried in the aUuvium, 

 the top of the central portion being alone visible above the surface 

 of the ground. Other portions were brought into view, about five 

 years ago, by Major Cunningham. A few weeks' labour would clear 

 the whole, which would then be one of the finest and most inter- 

 esting ruins in the East ; for Martund, to which I afterwards went, 

 though of the same form and size, has been so destroyed by the 

 bigoted Mussulmans, that hardly any of the beautiful stone-cutting 

 now remains, but bits here and there, to show what once was. 



On going up towards the Meerbal Pass into Kishtwar I found the 

 first fossil shell* I have yet met with in all my wanderings here ; it 

 occurred in the limestone-rock at an elevation of 9000 feet. It is 

 a Brachiopod, as you will see by the sketch. 



Oct. 25. — All my letters of late have begun in some out-of-the- 

 way spot, like the one I am now at (Pipran Station) up among the 

 snows. 



The ground I am now on is a high ridge, 12,000 to 13,000 feet 

 in places, descending to 11,000 feet, running from the Pir Pingal 

 Eange, near the Mudul Pass, towards Kishtwar city. The axis is of 

 granite and gneiss, forming the ridge ; the lower slopes being of slate. 



These crystalline rocks encircle the greater part of the valley of 

 Kashmere, running from this on the north-east towards the Didsut 



^ This specimen having been received, and submitted to Mr. Davidson for 

 examination, he has kindly supplied the following note : — 



" Having compared this specimen of Troductus -with all the figures of the 

 genus known to me, I have not been able to identify the species with any degi-ee 

 of certainty, and consider it perhaps new. The external sculptm*e has a some- 

 what irregular and peculiar quincunxial aspect not common to the Froductidce.'" 

 — T.D. 



