406 Journal of a trip through the [April, 



loud thunder reverbrates against their sides the sound is re-echoed 

 through every glen. But how different is the sensation when the tu- 

 multuous roar of the elements has been succeeded by death-like stillness, 

 and we behold the distant summits covered with fresh snow standing 

 out in bold relief against the deep azure of an eastern sky. We march- 

 ed on the day above mentioned to a small village called Thoorul, situated 

 about seven miles north of Tira. The road runs parallel to the Joala 

 range and passes through corn fields and pretty hamlets. Between the 

 hill called Assa-pooree and the ridge which separates the pergunnahs of 

 Kangra and Pallam, the valley consists of an extensive plain, which 

 slopes downwards from the Chumba range. It is intersected by several 

 torrents which flow along the bases of deep ravines. 



55. About nine miles further on in a north-eastward direction we 

 came upon the flourishing village of Bhurwurnah, which is but five 

 miles distant from the base of the Chumba range and near the centre 

 of the pergunnah of Pallam. We encamped within a large plot of 

 ground which was being laid out for the cultivation of the tea plant. 

 The road all the way is excellent and passes through a most delightful 

 country. The numerous villages are adorned with a profusion of man- 

 goe and silk-cotton trees and copses of bamboo. The rippling brook 

 and the hedgerow on either side, with stately trees overhanging the road, 

 gave quite an English aspect to the scenery, the similarity of which was 

 not a little increased by the occurrence of patches of snow in the shady 

 hollows. I noticed that the boulders buried in the alluvial strata, and 

 of which sections are visible on both sides of the road, were in every 

 stage of decomposition or disintegration. Some of them were so far 

 gone as scarcely to be distinguishable from the clay in which they are 

 embedded. In many instances merely the outlines shewing the original 

 size and shape of the boulders are left. They had been originally 

 blocks of quartz, granite, sienite, sandstone and various kinds of schist. 

 In the clayslate composing the hill called Jacko at Simla I remarked 

 similar outlines within which were invariably materials of a different 

 nature to the hard clay with which they were surrounded. They puz- 

 zled me greatly at the time, as I was then unable to account for their 

 presence, but I now feel convinced that they also must originally have 

 been boulders, and that they have been decomposed since their deposi- 

 tion in the strata. It seems almost impossible to account for them on any 



