scription may be more explanatory, to call back your attention to the country and people I have

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lately visited. From Lall Dong to the Ganges, the face of the country forms a close chain of woody mountains, and, did not one or two miserable hamlets feebly interpose, you would pronounce that division of Siringnaghur fitted only for the habitation of the beasts of the forest. Elephants abound there, in numerous herds; but are not to be seen, it is said, on the west side of the Jumna. In the vicinity of Nhan, the country is interspersed with low hills, and frequently opens into extensive valleys; which having, perhaps, ever lain waste, are overgrown with low wood. From thence to Ballaspour, the scene is changed into piles of lofty mountains, whose narrow breaks barely serve to discharge the descending streams. From Bellaspour, fertile valleys, though not wide, extend to Bissouly, where the country is again covered with high hills, which, with little variation, stretch to the limits of Kashmire. The boundaries of Kishtewer, except to the place of my entrance and departure, are not specified; nor is the amount of the revenues; an omission caused by my inability to procure any substantial authority. The Foad from Lall Dong to Kashmire, as accurately as could be ascertained, from an observation of the sun's course, tended generally to the north

The

west, west-north-west, and west-by-north; except where the deviation is otherwise noted. The sides of the inhabited mountains produce wheat, barley, and a variety of the small grains peculiar to India. The cultivated spaces project from the body of the hill, in separate flats, in the form of a range of semicircular stairs: with a broad base and a narrow summit. ground, which is strong and productive, has been propelled, it should seem, into these projections by the action of the rains, which fall among these mountains with great violence, from June till October; and is now preserved, in this divided and level state, by buttresses of loose stones, which bind in the edge of every flat. Rice is also cultivated in the narrow valleys, but not in a great quantity; nor is it the usual food of the inhabitants, who chiefly subsist on wheat, bread, and pease made into a thick soup. From Nhan, the northern sides of the hills produce the fir*, in great plenty; and in the country between Jumbo and Kashmire, are scen many pines; but I observed they only grew on the north face of the mountains. I have frequently eat my meal under the shade of a spreading willow, which here, as in Europe, delights in hanging over a stream. The climate is not favourable to fruits and vegetables, being too hot

* That species of it called the Scots fir.

for the Persian products, and not sufficiently warm to mature those of India: though the white mulberry must be excepted, which, at Jumbo, is of a large size, and of an exquisite flavour. The villages of the Mountaineers, or rather their hamlets, stand generally on the brow of a hill, and consist of from four to six or eight small scattered houses; which are built of rough stones, laid in a clay loam, and usually flat-roofed: I have also seen, though not often, sloping roofs of wood. The resinous parts of the fir, cut in slips, supply the common uses of the lamp, in all the places where that tree abounds; but the method of extracting its turpentine, or tar, does not seem to be known. The natives of these mountains are composed of the different classes of Hindoos, and little other difference of manners exists between them and those of the southern quarters of India than is seen amongst a people who occupy the high and low lands of the same country. The scarcity of wealth, by depressing the growth of luxury, has given them a rude simplicity of character, and has impeded the general advancement of civilization. They have no spacious buildings for private or public use, nor in the performance of religious offices do they observe those minuter or refined ceremonies that are practised by the southern Hindoos.

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Ar Taullah Mhokee* a small volcanic fire is sues from the side of a mountain, on which the Hindoos have raised a temple that has long been of celebrity and favourite resort among the people of the Punjab. Fire being the purest of the elements, the Hindoos consider it, as did most of the ancient Asiatic nations, the fittest emblem to represent the Deity. All places which produce a subterraneous flame are held sacred by the Hindoos, who do not permit any image to be placed near it; believing that other symbols would tend to sully the purity of this representation; and I have often noticed, that those Hindoos who are most conversant in the rites of their religion, never omitted, at the first sight of fire in the course of the day, to, offer up a prayer of adoration. The Mountaineers invariably reserved the beard, and, instead of bowing the head in salutation, as in Lower India, they embrace the party addressed, and incline the head over his left shoulder. The growth of the beard is encouraged, perhaps, from a certain ferocity of disposition incident to their situation, and generally predominant in the disposition of Mountaineers, which prompts them, in different modes, to shew a disdain and contempt for

This word signifies "The mouth of the flame." The place is situate eight or nine miles to the northward of Nadone, the principal town in the Kangrah country.

the softer manners of the natives of the low Country *:

THE women have the olive complexion, are delicately shaped, and evince a freedom in their manner, which, without a tendency to immodesty, or connected with the habits of licentiousness, seems the result of the common confidence reposed in them by the men: I have seen a woman stop, though carrying a pot of water, and converse unreservedly with passengers; giving them an information of the road, or any other ordinary intelligence. Their dress consists of a petticoat, with a border, usuallyof different colours; a close jacket, covering half of the waist; and a loose stomacher to the fore part of it, which reaches to the girdle. Their hair, which they hold in as high an estimation as that beautiful appendage can be regarded by the gayest females of Europe, is plaited with black silk, or cotton strings, and falls down the back; over

* A swelling of the exterior part of the throat, which is ascribed to the noxious quality of the water, prevails among the mountaineers. As the same complaint, proceeding probably, from the like cause, is incident to certain inhabitants of the Alps and other mountainous countries in Europe, the origin of it has, doubtless, been scientifically investigated and explained: I will, therefore, only observe, that the water issuing from these mountains is impregnated, from the large mixture of snow, with a crude and cold quality, and may have acquired its alleged pernicious property from being confined in channels, which the shade of the woods and the height of the hills preclude from a free circulation of air and the rays of the sun.