NATURALIST IN INDIA. 159 



lightning. At last down it poured, and with such violence 

 that the footpath for long distances formed the bed of torrents 

 reaching to the knees of our horses. At last matters got 

 desperate, and we were fairly overcome by the difficulties, which 

 increased with a pelting hurricane, and drove us to seek 

 shelter in two deserted huts on the mountain-side, where, with 

 our drenched servants and baggage, we spent a cheerless night, 

 to wake on the following morning and find matters in much 

 the same or even worse condition than on the previous 

 day. But there was no help for it ; so, mounting our horses, 

 we floundered up the mountain-side, and arrived at Murree at 

 dusk. On the following morning several inches of snow lay 

 round the hill-top, and the neighbouring ranges were covered ; 

 whUst the great Peer Pinjal chain, on the verge of the Cash- 

 mere Valley, seemed completely robed in a mantle of snow. 

 The thermometer stood at 42° at 9 A.M. The scenery of this 

 little mountain retreat during summer is peculiarly beautiful. 

 All the fruit-trees grow in great luxuriance, and most vege- 

 tables and plants of the temperate zone thrive admirably. Here 

 are collected all the military invalids for the stations on the 

 north-west frontier of the Punjaub, and whoever can manage to 

 escape from the heat of the plains. During a walk about the 

 empty cottages we traced footprints of a black bear that had 

 passed across the road, and saw several kalij pheasants and 

 a troup of entellus monkeys in a piue-wood close to the bar- 

 rack. The black bear of the lower ranges of the Himalayas 

 does not seem to differ in any very appreciable extent from 

 that of the middle region ; only I have noticed that the 

 former are seldom so large, and all I have examined had the 

 fur on the paws and snout rust-coloured instead of white. 

 This peculiarity, however, may not be regular ; at all events, 

 the distinctions cannot be called specific. Our course for 



