904 Journal of a Trip to the Burenda Pass in 1836. [Nov. 



room, belonging to government, and which is the usual halting-place 

 for travellers, being about twelve miles from Simta. 



The elevation of the bungalow is 8040 feet. 



From this place a road branches off through the Jubal country 

 towards the Chor mountain, which is one of the lions usually visited 

 by travellers, and attains an elevation of 12,149 feet. The road 

 across the hills to Mastiri also lies in the same direction. 



At Fdgu we halted one day and on the 24th September pursued 

 our march towards Mattidna, which is the second stage from Simla 

 to the cantonment of Kotgarh, and where there is another small 

 bungalow of one room. Elevation 8070 feet. 



The grassy hills between Fdgu and Mattidna produce during the 

 rains, immense quantities of a species of orchis, called by the natives 

 " salep misri," the roots of which are sometimes collected and 

 dried, and afterwards brought to Simla or sent to the plains for sale. 

 If care and culture were bestowed upon these plants and the drying 

 of the roots properly attended to, why might not the hill plant equal 

 the famous Persian and Turkish salep misri, which is now sold at 

 such high prices as almost to preclude the possibility of using it ? 

 The hill plant grows at Simla and is pretty generally diffused over 

 the interior, and as it may be had in almost any quantities, an im- 

 portant and nourishing addition to the diet of infants and invalids 

 might be furnished at a reasonable and even cheap rate. 



The road from Fdgu is seen for miles running along the side of a 

 bare hill, which on one side shuts out the view, while on the other 

 are deep glens with here and there a few houses. It is a long and 

 dreary march of about 14 miles, and as the party I was with were 

 keen sportsmen, we agreed to breakfast at a wood about half-way, and 

 three miles beyond the old fort of Theog, which stands on an eminence 

 near the road and is 8013 feet above the sea. 



After breakfast we beat the forest for game and found a musk deer 

 and some plass pheasants, as also the hill partridge and the shikari 

 of the party brought in some chicors*. 



The whole of this day we walked on leisurely down the hhads for the 

 two-fold purpose of finding game and avoiding the dreary road to 

 Mattidna, In the evening we came to our encamping ground in the 

 bed of the glen below Mattidna bungalow, on the banks of a stream, 

 which wound along among the bluff rocks and thickly wooded hills, 

 giving a beautiful and romantic appearance to the scene which is 

 here highly picturesque, the banks of the glen rising some hundreds 

 of feet high on either side, and clothed to the top with trees and 

 brushwood. 



