DALHOUSIE 125
and yellow greens of the floating masses of water-weed. The rhindrs
are warm with crimson, and the poplars stand up like golden poles to
the sky. On the mountain-sides the, trees are red and gold, and the
scene is one of unequalled loveliness. Looking towards the city from
the lake the famous hill, the Takht-i-Sulaiman, stands on the left; and
to the right the hill of Hari Parbat, with its picturesque fort full of
recollections of the grandeur of past times. Between these hills lies Sri-
nagar, and away to the west are the snow-capped mountains. The
Dal is clear, and the people say that the shawls of Kashmir owed
much of their excellence to being washed in its soft waters. Nature
has done much for the lake, but the Mughal emperors exerted them-
selves to enhance its natural beauties ; and though the terraced gardens
of Jahangir and Shah Jahan, with the prim rows of cypress through
which formal cascades tumble down to the edge of the Dal, may not
please the European landscape-gardener, the magnificent plane-trees
which the great Mughals bequeathed to posterity have added a distinc-
tive charm. The park of plane-trees known as the Nasim Bagh, `the
garden of breezes,' which was planted in Akbar's time, is the most
beautiful of all. Nothing is perhaps more striking than the ruined Pari
Mahal standing grandly on a spur of the Zebanwan mountain, which
was built by Dara Shikoh for his tutor, Mulla Shah, whose tomb is at
Mulshahi Bagh, near the entrance of the Sind valley. There are two
small islands on the lake, known as the Sona Lanka or `golden isle'
and the Rupa Lanka or `silver isle.' The original of the name Dal is
uncertain. One authority states that the name signifies in the Kashmiri
language `lake,' and that there is a Tibetan word dal which means
` still.' In the chronicle of Srivara the lake is called Dala. The culti-
vation on the lake is peculiar and interesting.
Dalhousie.-Hill sanitarium attached to the Pathankot lahstl of
Gurdaspur District, Punjab, situated in 33° 32′ N. and 75° 58′ E.
Population (rgor), 1,3 16. The station occupies the summits and upper
slopes of three mountain peaks on the main Himalayan range, east of
the Ravi river, lying 51 miles north-west of Pathankot, and 74 miles
from Gurdaspur, at an elevation above the sea of 7,687 feet. The can-
tonments lie below at Balun, and still lower down is Bani Khet, where
a detachment and a wing of a British regiment are stationed during
the hot season. The scenery compares favourably with that of any
hill station in the Himalayan range. To the east the granite peak of
Dain Kund, clothed with dark pine forests, and capped with snow even
during part of the summer, towers to a height of q,ooo feet; while
beyond, again, the peaks of the Dhaola Dhar, covered with perpetual
snow, shut in the Kangra valley and close the view in that direction.
The hills consist of rugged granite, and the houses are perched on
a few gentler, slopes among the decliv ties.
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