Wooded valley from Fulaldaru - 1865

A view of the wooded valley from Fulaldaru, with the Srikanta Peaks in the distance, taken by Samuel Bourne in the 1860s. Srikanta peaks are an important peak in the Garhwal Himalayas and stand at 6728 m.

Samuel Bourne's photographs display a compositional elegance which appealed to Victorian notions of the ‘picturesque’; strategically framed landscapes of rugged mountain scenery, forests, rivers, lakes and rural dwellings. Bourne chose his routes with care, planning his itineraries based on the latest maps, the locations of renowned geological features, glaciers, high passes, the sources of major rivers, unusual land forms with fossils and places of archaeological note specific to the Himalayas.

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