Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 2.djvu/275

 transparently-winged beetle: the sounds are like what we might fancy the notes would be of birds gone crazy.

"The shrill cicalas, people of the pine,— Making their summer lives one ceaseless song, Were the sole echoes, save my steed's and mine."

The road was remarkably picturesque, the wind high and cold—a delightful breeze, the sky cloudy, and the scenery beautiful: I enjoyed a charming ride, returned home laden with wild flowers, and found amusement for some hours, comparing them with Loudon's Encyclopedia. A pony, that was grazing on the side of Landowr close to my house, fell down the precipice, and was instantly killed: my ayha came to tell me that the privates of the 16th Lancers and of the Buffs ate horseflesh, for she had seen one of them bring up a quantity of the pony's flesh in a towel;—I ventured to observe, the man might have dogs to feed.

VIEW FROM THE PILGRIM'S BANGLĀ.

19th.—The view from the verandah of my banglā or house is very beautiful: directly beneath it is a precipice; opposite is that part of the hill of Landowr on which stands the sanatorium for the military, at present occupied by the invalids of the 16th Lancers and of the Buffs. The hill is covered with grass, and the wild potato grows there in profusion; beyond is a high steep rock, which can only be ascended by a very precipitous path on one side of it; it is crowned by a house called Lall Tība, and is covered with oak and rhododendron trees. Below, surrounded with trees, stands the house of Mr. Connolly; and beyond that, in the distance, are the snow-covered mountains of the lower range of the Himalaya. The road—if the narrow pathway, three feet in breadth, may deserve so dignified an appellation—is to the right, on the edge of a precipice, and on the other side is the perpendicular rock out of which it has been cut. This morning I heard an outcry, and ran to see what had happened; just below, and directly in front of my house, an accident had occurred: an officer of the Buffs had sent a valuable horse down