Two thousand feet higher up, near Mahaldiram (whence the last view of the plains is gained), European plants appear,--Berberry, _Paris,_ etc.; but here, night gathered round, and I had still ten miles to go to the nearest bungalow, that of Pacheem. The road still led along the eastern slope of the Balasun valley, which was exceedingly steep, and so cut up by ravines, that it winds in and out of gulleys almost narrow enough to be jumped across. It was very late before I arrived at Pacheem bungalow, the most sinister-looking rest-house I ever saw, stuck on a little cleared spur of the mountain, surrounded by dark forests, overhanging a profound valley, and enveloped in mists and rain, and hideous in architecture, being a miserable attempt to unite the Swiss cottage with the suburban gothic; it combined a maximum of discomfort with a minimum of good looks or good cheer. I was some time in finding the dirty housekeeper, in an outhouse hard by, and then in waking him. As he led me up the crazy verandah, and into a broad ghostly room, without glass in the windows, or fire, or any one comfort, my mind recurred to the stories told of the horrors of the Hartz forest, and of the benighted traveller's situation therein. Cold sluggish beetles hung to the damp walls,--and these I immediately secured. After due exertions and perseverance with the damp wood, a fire smoked lustily, and, by cajoling the gnome of a housekeeper, I procured the usual roast fowl and potatos, with the accustomed sauce of a strong smoky and singed flavour.* [Since writing the above a comfortable house has been erected at Senadah, the name now given to what was called Pacheem Bungalow.] Pacheem stands at an elevation of nearly 7300 feet, and as I walked out on the following morning I met with English looking plants in abundance, but was too early in the season to get aught but the foliage of most. _Chryosplenium,_ violet, _Lobelia,_ a small geranium, strawberry, five or six kinds of bramble, _Arum, Paris, Convallaria, Stellaria, Rubia, Vaccinium,_ and various _Gnaphalia._ Of small bushes, cornels, honeysuckles, and the ivy tribe predominated, with _Symplocos_ and _Skimmia, Eurya,_ bushy brambles, having simple or compound green or beautifully silky foliage; _Hypericum,_ Berberry, Hydrangea, Wormwood, _Adamia cyanea, Viburnum,_ Elder, dwarf bamboo, etc.