1 242 SIRINAGUR.
2 polished black marble, and consisting of two rooms on either
3 side of a passage, which runs through the centre of the building.
4 On the east and west sides of it there is a corridor, six and a half
5 yards wide, formed by a range of six polygonal pillars, about
6 thirteen feet in height, and of the same material. They are said
7 to have been taken from the ruins of a Hindoo temple, but the’
8 capitals and bases appear to have been the work of a Mahomedan
9 architect, and the latter in particular are most beautifully scalloped
10 and polished. The building itself is twenty-four yards square,
11 the north and south sides being ornamented with Saracenic reliefs.
12 It stands in the centre of a square reservoir, which is also lined
13 with black marble, whose sides are about fifty-four yards long, and
14 in its whole circumference, contains one hundred and forty-seven
15 fountains, which are made to play on holidays, the reservoir being
16 filled by the stream, which enters it in the shape of a cascade. The
17 height from the stone floor to the roof is about twenty feet. The
18 latter may originally have been pointed like the Tuscan roof, but
19 as it is now covered with thatch, its original shape cannot be de-
20 termined. The stream thence descends from the reservoir by a
21 shallow canal cut through the centre of the gardens, and lined
22 with marble, and it falls over an artificial cascade at each of the
23 three lodges through which it passes in its way to the lake. A
24 broad causeway, or walk, runs on each side of it, overshadowed
25 by large chunar-trees, and here and there, a few turfed walks
26 branch off at right angles into the shrubberies, in which are little
27 else than wild plum-trees, planted for the sake of their white blos-
28 soms. At the end of one of these is a decayed bath, built of brick,
29 and the walls around are covered with ivy.”” The view of the lake
30 from the vicinity of the city is very beautiful, the entrance lying
31 between two striking eminences—Huri Parbut on the west, and
32 on the east the Tukhti Suliman, of greater elevation and more
33 imposing aspect. Between these, a magnificent crescent of moun-
34 tains rises on the north, the east, and south-east, and on the
35 north-west the huge summit of Haramuk towers in the distance with
36 great grandeur. The foreground is formed by the expanse of the
37 clear water of the lake, in many places mantling with the rich green
38 leaves and brilliant blossoms of the water-lily (Nelumbium
39 speciosum), and studded with green islets, in many instances
40 tufted with trees. The beauty of this delightful scene is
41 heightened by the appearance of the shore, teeming with the