"The temple is enclosed by a pillared quadrangle 220 feet in length by 142 feet in breadth, containing 84 fluted columns. This number the Chourasi (84) of the Hindus is especially emblematic of the sun, as it is the multiple of the twelve mansions of the ecliptic (typified by 12 spokes in his chariot wheel) through which he is carried by his seven steeds in one year; or it is the product of his seven rays multiplied by the twelve signs of the Zodiac. The 84 pillars are therefore most probably intended for that number of solar rays. Thus, even the colonnade is made typical of the deity to whom the temple is consecrated.

"It overlooks the finest view in Kashmir, and perhaps in the known world. Beneath it lies the Paradise of the East, with its sacred streams and cedarn glens, its brown orchards and green fields, surrounded on all sides by vast snowy mountains, whose lofty peaks seem to smile upon the beautiful valley below. The vast extent of the scene makes it sublime, for this magnificent view of Kashmir is no pretty peep into a half-mile glen; but the full display of a valley 60 miles in breadth, and upwards of 100 miles in length, the whole of which lies beneath the ken of the wonderful Marttand."*

A stream of water passed through the quadrangle, and is supposed to have been filled on ceremonial occasions. From General Cunningham's description, Mr. Sulmann, an artist who has given much attention to the study of Indian architecture, produced the accompanying drawing, which may very closely represent the temple in its former glory.

From Marttand a short walk leads to the sacred springs and grove of Barwun on the plain at the base of the karaya. Seated near the tank a group of Hindoos surrounded a calf, which a priest, grasping the tail, poured water over, and prayed. He was consecrating it, to become a sacred bull in after-life. This operation completed, the calf walked off, and the priest with the devotees knelt beside the water. Before them was a tin platter of roasted maize, and continuing to drone in a loud voice not unlike a presbyterian preacher, they threw handfuls of the corn into the

* Cunningham's Arian Order of Architecture.

water, at which the fish rose on all sides. But when the prayer was ended and the remainder of the corn was thrown in at once, a hill of fish rushed at it, many supported above the water by the shoal of their companions below.

Angler, wouldst thou be guiltless then forbear,

For these are sacred fishes that swim here."

This letter is being written from Aitchabul, in a pavilion surrounded by a tank filled with fountains, close to a waterfall, which, though artificial, roars like a natural one, a resemblance one would be glad to dispense with. "I turned," wrote Bernier, "a little from the high road for the sake of visiting Achiavel, a country house formerly of the kings of Kashmire, and now of the Great Mogul. What principally constitutes the beauty of this place is a fountain whose waters disperse themselves into a hundred canals round the house, which is not amiss, and throughout the gardens. The spring gushes out of the earth with violence, as if it issued from the bottom of some well, and the water is so abundant that it ought rather to be called a river than a fountain. It is excellent water, and as cold as ice. The garden is very handsome, laid out in regular walks, and full of fruit trees-the apple, pear, plum, apricot, and cherry. Jets d'eau in various forms and fish-ponds are in great number, and there is a lofty cascade which in its fall takes the form and colour of a large sheet, thirty or forty paces in length, producing the finest effect imaginable, especially at night, when innumerable lamps fixed in parts of the wall adapted for that purpose are lighted under this sheet of water.

“From Achiavel I proceeded to another royal garden, embellished much in the same manner. One of its ponds contains fish so tame that they approach on being called, or when pieces of bread are thrown into the water. The largest have gold rings with inscriptions through the gills, placed there, it is said, by the celebrated Nurmahall, the wife of Jahangir, grandfather to Aureng-Zêbe.” * The Jhelum, among its agreeable characteristics, is a river whose sources are found without danger to the explorer. It starts from * Bernier's Travels, vol. ii. p. 154.

BR

a series of magnificent springs at the base of the mountains; and as the Mogul emperors in the summer visits which they paid to the neighbourhood erected palaces near these loca fabulosus, and adorned them with works of oriental fancy, scarcely had the waters gushed forth, than they were conveyed, to rise in fountains or over blocks of masonry, to fall in cascades, through gardens and in rapid streams, to fertilise the surrounding valley. The springs that flow in a large volume from the base of the spur that bounds this retreat are the finest in Kashmir, and the Emperor Shah Jahan availed himself of them to adorn a garden which he constructed here for the light of his eyes, of his harem, and of the world. Nothing but the Hammam or bath-rooms remain, nor can the form of the palace be traced in its ruins, but the tanks and canals, built with greater solidity, exist to give a notion of its beauty. The water, in a wave of crystal, falls into the tank over a block of masonry twelve feet high and twenty broad. This pavilion, which divides the tank into two squares, each containing twenty-five fountains, approached by small bridges and surrounded by lattice-work, is an agreeable retreat during the heat of the day, and in the evening my rides are through a valley whose mountains clothed with noble trees are intersected by pathways, through wildernesses of roses and jessamines. From the garden the streams pass into a tank full of fish, which may be caught by any one who likes them; but this was not the case last year. The Brahmin priests discovered and communicated the intelligence to the Maharajah, that the spirit of his father, the late Golab Singh, had migrated into a fish. Straightway an order was issued that no fish were to be caught that year. He has since flitted " elsewhere, so that the prohibition has been removed.

This morning, the 22nd of June, the Maharajah, accompanied by his son, his prime minister, interpreter, and a retinue of two hundred followers, arrived from Jummoo, en route for Srinuggur, and encamped in the garden.

The Maharajah of Jummoo and Kashmir, Runbheer Singh, now about forty-three years old, is the absolute ruler of a territory extending from Jummoo on the British frontier to Thibet, and