1843.J of the Punjaub and part of Afghanistan. 203 



cause them to bring the bodies of their relations here, for fifty miles 

 round, in order to burn them. When we were there, there were several 

 burning, and the ashes of others collected in heaps. Of Maharaja Run- 

 jeet Singh, who has built a large house, it was a favorite resort, and 

 there was one building for the Jummoo Rajas, (Dhian Singh and Goo- 

 laub Singh.) The building material is limestone, the rock of the dis- 

 trict. On it in the neighbourhood of Rotas there is a coating of calcare- 

 ous sinter and tuffa,* fifteen feet or more in thickness, shewing that 

 springs (they bring spring deposits,) were formerly more abundant than 

 they now are. They, as well as the limestone, are extensively used for 

 building purposes, and for making lime. 



Springs. — The springs, like all the other springs in the Punjaub and 

 Affghanistan,t which issue from limestone districts, belong to that divi- 

 sion which is hot in winter and cold in summer ; the temperature of 

 the air in the morning being twenty degrees lower than that of the 

 water. Similar springs were met with among the Himalayas, in the 

 Bijouni valley, between Saeeki Huttee and Belaspore, Cohat, Hus- 

 sun Abdul, &c. The depth of the one at Rotas is said to be unknown. 

 Regarding it there is a tradition which I was told by one of the natives, 

 viz. that a man who had been engaged making a rope for twelve years 

 attempted with it to fathom it, but could not find any bottom. Op- 

 posite the spring a shamianah is erected, and beneath it a charpoi, 

 covered with a white sheet ; here a Grunth, (the sacred book of the Sikhs,) 

 is placed, and before it sits a man night and day with a punka in his 

 hand, to drive away flies, repeating passages from the sacred volume. 



From Rotas on to Maree on the Indus the whole country consists of 

 extensive plains surrounded by mountains, in general barren in the ex- 

 treme. It is in these that the best horses of the Punjaub are bred, but 

 that does not infer much, as a very good country bred horse is seldom 

 seen. 



* Probably this is the rock alluded to by my friend Mr. Griffith in his report on 

 the subjects connected with Affghanistan, when mentioning the sources of springs he 

 says, " The bed of the ravine by which the army descended from Lala Ghurree Beg, 

 was found to be dry to within one mile of Ali Musjid, at a place called Siri Chushma, 

 where there are copious supplies from a soil of -cavernous limestone. Indeed, this rock 

 seems to be the principal source of the springs of the country in those parts beyond 

 the influence of the melting of the perpetual snows." Journal Asiatic Society, new 

 series, No. 34, page 809. 



f See Reports by Lord, Burnes, Griffith, &c. 



