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



ed some 800 or 1,000 feet, through forests of pindrow, large hazel 

 trees (Corylus lacera), Grewia (or Celtis), Rhus buckiamela, Milling- 

 tonia dillenifolia, Staphylea emodi (nagdoun, the snake - sub duer), Sym- 

 plocos paniculata, Betula cylindrostachya, elm, and maple ; the vege- 

 tation of Nagkunda. The opposite bank is one series of huge crags 

 and cliffs, falling sheer down to the river, with a " boundless conti- 

 guity" of pine above. A large tributary here joins the Roopin from the 

 wild shattered glen of the Nulgoon Pass. Open, grassy, and rather 

 warm mountains succeeded, on which the path gradually declines to 

 the river, where we reached the left bank by the sanga — called in the 

 map, Wodar — from an impending rock, used as a sheep-fold. From 

 this an easy ascent of two miles, shaded by elm, Horn-beam (Carpinus 

 viminea), horse-chesnut, Cornus macrophylla, rhus, Alder birch, 

 maple, and Mohroo oak — brought us to Poojalee, a very well-built 

 village, one of the group of four or five collectively, called Kooar, situat- 

 ed on the sunny slope of the mountains, amidst a profusion of the usual 

 fruit trees, and with a spacious tract of terraced cultivation, now one 

 rich glow of the splendid carmine, orange, and yellow hues of the 

 Bathoo, and the more delicate pink of the Phuphur or Buck- wheat. A 

 fine stream rattles past the village from the mountains above, which 

 extend from NE. to SE. covered with forest, and reaching the region of 

 birch. They slope up easily, but from N. to NE. several bold peaks 

 and bluff rocky promontories stand out in all the " wild pomp of 

 mountain majesty." 



Though now uncommonly low, the Roopin is here quite unfordable ; 

 its general temperature from Rasrung down to Kooar, is in the day-time 

 from 46° to 50° at this season ; from the clearness of its water and the 

 beauty of its banks is most likely derived its name, which I think 

 signifies " beautiful," as " Pabur" means " clear" — Tous (or Tamasa) 

 " dark blue," &c. All the advantages indeed, of this valley, Paradise are 

 counterbalanced by some serious drawbacks, one of which, the goitre, 

 deforms rather than afflicts almost every inhabitant of Kooar ; for while 

 it shortens the breath, it does not, they say, shorten life or cause pain. 

 In so far as it disables its subject from climbing the mountains, nature 

 may seem to fail in adapting man's organization to his circumstances : 

 but I could not learn that with his breath she takes away his mind too, 

 as in those shocking samples of humanity, the cretins of the Valais, &c. 



