90 GULMARG

in the trees) and the mdin valley, but also a lovely little side-valley known as the Ferozepur nulla, Looking straight down two thousand feet through the pine trees we see a mountain torrent whose distant soothing rumbling mingles with the sighing of the pines, Brilliant green meadows, on which a few detached pine trees stand gracefully out here and there, line the river-banks. Steep hill-sides, mostly clad in gloomy forest, rise on either hand, but relieved by many patches of grassy sunlit slope. The spurs become a deeper purple as they recede. The openings in the forests become wider higher on the mountain- side where the avalanches have scoured them more frequently. Higher still the forest-line is passed, and the little stream is seen issuing from its source among the snow-fields and flowing over enticing grassy meadows. Above the glisten- ing snow-fields rises a rugged péak of the Pir Panjal which, when it is not set against a back- ground of intense blue sky, is the butt of raging storm-clouds.

The most beautiful time in Gulmarg is in September, when the rains are over and the first fresh autumn nip is in the air. Then from the summer-house in our garden, in the early morning,