108 Diary of an Excursion to the Shatool [No. 170. 



From the rapids of the Sutluj an abrupt ascent of several hundred 

 feet leads to the cultivation, chiefly buck wheat, and finally under 

 vineyards, to the romantic village of Keelba, situated immediately above 

 the river, surrounded by great numbers of fine peach, apricot, walnut 

 and elm trees ; while some superb weeping willows flourish by the 

 beautifully clear rivulets which gush down on every hand from the 

 lofty mountains to the south. These are densely wooded, and shew a 

 front of splendid precipices to the north or north-west, ending in 

 a high bluff" of rock, which seems the " Yana Bui" of the map. Seen 

 from near Meeroo across the river, the appearance is as if a great tract 

 of ground had here subsided, having a high wall of rock on one side, 

 reaching up to the Snowy range near the Boorun Ghatee. Meeroo 

 itself is hidden from Keelba, but the neighbouring village and cul- 

 tivated slopes of Oorinnee, 400 to 500 feet above us, are visible to 

 the north-west ; and to the east, the snowy peaks of the Ruldung just 

 come into view. The grapes here and at Brooang, &c. have totally 

 failed this year, probably from the prevalence of unseasonable rain, 

 which fell in drizzling showers to-day and yesterday, but cleared up 

 this afternoon. At Melum, a good room was placed at our disposal, 

 with a second for our people : and we have the same advantage at 

 Keelba. 



September 17th. — To Brooung, Booroo, or Brood, eight or nine miles. 

 We marched at 20 minutes to 8 a. m. and descended to the Sutluj, 

 which here flows in a broad and comparatively calm stream : the path 

 generally bad, lying up and down the crags, which are finally wooded 

 with ash, olive, and neoza pine (P. gerardiana.) At half past nine we 

 reached the confluence of the Buspa, which flows into the Sutluj like a 

 mill-race, and is equally muddy, marking its source in a granitic tract. 

 " Pilgrim" attributes the turbid waters of the Neelung to its source 

 amongst mountains of slate clay (p. 33.) but on inspection of the Rul- 

 dung cluster, which may be called the cradle of the Buspa, with its great 

 scars and flaws of whitish granite, induces me to conclude that the dis- 

 coloration is due to the decomposition of this rock : it is exactly the 

 same with the Arveron at Chamouni. The bluff crags and cliffs, 

 feathered with cedar, and the twisted neoza, are very grand where the 

 rivers unite : the Sutluj comes down through a narrow rocky gorge, 

 a little above the point of confluence ; a good Sanga, 5,968 feet above the 



