16G WANDERINGS OF A 



The banks of the influent rivulets are hidden by profusion of 

 apricot, barberry, mulberry, wood-apple, and other fruit-trees. 

 Large boulders of granite strew the bottoms of the valleys, 

 some carried down by landslips, but others evidently deposited 

 by either fluviatUe or glacial forces far exceeding in extent and 

 intensity anything of the sort now going on. 



As usual, the walnut-tree shades every hamlet. The fruit 

 is much used by the natives ; the wild olive and pomegranate 

 are also common. 



Indian com, wheat, cucumbers, melons, etc., are cultivated. 

 The first is reaped in autumn, when the black bears and 

 pigs repair at night and commit great havoc in the fields and 

 gardens, so as to necessitate watchmen sitting on raised plat- 

 forms in the middle of the fields and keeping up a constant 

 noise by screaming and beating drums. It is, however, seldom, 

 with every care, that these unwelcome intruders are kept ofi', 

 for in spite of every means had recourse to, both bears and pigs 

 manage to destroy whole fields of Indian corn. During the 

 summer, when insect life is in full vigour, the noise made by 

 crickets and their allies, especially at night, is almost deafen- 

 ing. A constant wailing ciy, possibly of one of the owls or 

 night-jars, was heard at dusk. So persistent was the doleful 

 worwa, that I do not think we often missed hearing the sound 

 at night throughout the journey to Cashmere. 



Proceeding from Uri to the next halting-place, Noushera, 

 the traveller passes through as beautiful scenery as can be 

 seen anywhere. Let him choose any season of the year, there 

 can be only one feeling uppermost, and that is of wonder and 

 astonishment at the grandeur and surpassing beauty around 

 him. Before the river had appeared to him a mighty flood, 

 moving steadily onwards through a broad valley ; now — 



