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INDIA

to Mahmud of Ghazni early in the eleventh century, but it
did not rise to magnificence till the reign of the Moghul
Emperor Akbar. The mausoleum of his son Jehangir at
Shahdara, on the banks of the Ravi, with the fort and
the Shahimar gardens, is the chief attraction of Lahore.
Lahore is surrounded by gardens, and the sweet luxuriance
 of verdure—still fresh when most of India is parched
and withered—is due to the long cold weather of the
upper Punjab. In April, and even in May, the climate
is not only endurable, but often delightful. But the hot
weather, if it sets in late sets in vigorously, and in July
and August the heat is often terrific in this “city of
dreadful night.” About four miles from Lahore is the
military cantonment of Mian Mir. Whatever advantages
of position may have existed formerly in Mian Mir to
recommend it as the site of a military station have so
long disappeared as to be unrecognisable at present.
There are certainly none apparent in the bleak and dusty
plain which surrounds this cantonment,
From Lahore to Peshawur is a journey through the
historic fields of the Sutlej campaigns, and through a
country which, in many respects, differs from that of the
Indus Valley. It is broken into a picturesque network of
steep-sided ravines as the train approaches Rawal Pindi,
where the general level rises to nearly 2000 feet above
sea. It is traversed by three mighty rivers, the Chenab,
the Jehlam, and the Indus, all of which are crossed by
magnificent bridges, triumphs of engineering skill, and it
is within sight of the snow-line of the Himalayas, the
lower spurs of the mountains reaching southward towards
the line, and appearing, in the still clear atmosphere of
winter, almost to touch it. At Jehlam and Rawal Pindi
they are, however, still far distant. Beyond Pindi, which
is an overgrown military station (the headquarters of the
Punjab Army Corps) with a huge seething native city lying
low on its northern flank, the undulating country is never
monotonous, and after passing the Indus there is at times
a certain resemblance to the Scottish lowlands in the flat
hills covered with purple flowering plants which faintly