186 WANDERINGS OF A 



jal for upwards of thirty miles, ends among the high ranges 

 on the frontiers of Little Tibet, where spring the infant- 

 rills of its beautiful Lidur — a fine mountain torrent, which, 

 gathering strength as it runs along the valley, becomes 

 nearly as large as the Jheliun itself at Bij Bedra, where the 

 two unite. 



The mountains of the Duchinpara are chiefly composed of 

 limestone, and, for the first fifteen or twenty miles, slope 

 gradually into the valley ; their sides are clad with dense pine 

 forests, alternating with grassy glades, whilst the bottom and 

 banks of the Lidur are covered with dense jungle, diversified 

 by little villages, hamlets, fields, and groves of apple, walnut, 

 &c. In the secluded depths of its forest the Cashmere stag 

 finds a safe retreat, and the musk-deer, although getting much 

 reduced in numbers, is occasionally met with. A few of the 

 strange goat-antelopes {Cwpricornis bubalina) frequent the more 

 secluded parts, while on the grassy openings round the limits 

 of forest, a brown or black bear may be found. Had the game 

 of the Duchinpara been preserved with even moderate care, 

 therg is no place in the world where the sportsman might 

 pursue his pastime with more advantage ; but for years, and 

 at all seasons, natives and Europeans have been constantly at 

 the work of extermination, and before long the north " glades 

 and glooms '' wOl be without a single denizen, save on the 

 mountain-tops, where the stag roams secure from the rifle 

 of any but the most expert and adventurous cragsman. The 

 Cashmere deer (Cervus cashmeriensis) is known by the native 

 names "bara-singa" (twelve-horned), and "hanglu." It seems 

 to be very closely allied, if not identical with, Cermos affinis* 

 (Hodg.), and perhaps likewise WaUich's deer {C. wallichii), 

 both natives of the forests of Nepa and the Eastern Hima- 

 * See Journal As. Soc. of Bengal, xliii. 



