gay-coloured leopard is seen glancing through the trees; or a herd of large stags, startled by his footsteps from their sequestered valley, bound wildly through its gorges; or the gazelle, the ibex, and the musk-deer, alarmed perhaps by the cry of the felon jackal, fly upwards or downwards, as their habits lead them; while the wild goat climbs out of sight more slowly, encumbered as he is by a pair of horns four feet long, and of a weight which a man can with difficulty carry on his shoulders.

Nor is the vegetable kingdom found less interesting. Birch and alder trees meet so closely the limits of perpetual congelation that their branches are weighed towards the side of the steep with snow. At twelve thousand feet above the level of the sea, the Himalaya cedar begins, attaining at a lower altitude a circumference of more than thirty feet, and gilding the whole forest with its rich yellow garlands, which in turn, scattering their dust upon the ground, carpets it with gold. Numerous other pines present themselves in turns, together with the wild chestnut tree far exceeding these in height, and the poplar and lime rising likewise to a gigantic size.

Numerous gorges are now seen opening from the mountains above into the abyss, and projecting long smoothly swelling undulations of land between; and here and there water-courses, from the rill to the torrent, glitter through the trees, and break drowsily the stillness of the air. But the mystery is still unsolved; the valley, for aught the traveller can discover, may be either the crater of some vast volcano, or the bed of some dark and silent sea; for it is now the season when the enchanters, described by Marco Polo as inhabiting it, hide the face of nature by their sorceries. The sun shines intensely bright in the heavens, and the snowy moun

tains return the blaze as if from polished silver; the edges of the rocks, and the tops of the forest trees, are sharp and crisp in the clear atmosphere; but an impenetrable haze overspreads the gulf into which the traveller is descending.

At this moment some rain falls-or some snow, melted and evaporated, perhaps, before it gains the groundand the spell is broken. The haze is not torn and scattered by the wind, but suddenly disappears, as if by the magic to which its origin is ascribed by the Venetian traveller, and discloses a rich plain at the bottom, of an emerald green, variegated by lakes, and threaded by a hundred streams, into which the mountains, or the hills supporting their bases, sweep undulatingly down, covered with rich groves or verdant pasture, and conferring a romantic grace upon a scene which would otherwise be only beautiful.

But this picture, it will be observed, can only give an idea, faint though it be, of a scene in small enough compass to be taken in by a single sweep of the human vision. The mere plain of Cashmere, however, is seventy-five miles in length, by forty in breadth; and this forms but the bottom of a stupendous basin, of which the top-or the culminating ridge of the mountains which surround it is a hundred and twenty miles long, and seventy miles broad: the whole having a superficial area of between four and five thousand square miles. This basin, according to the most minute, and therefore perhaps the most accurate, of its observers, forms a regular oval of snowy summits; although, for about a fifth part of the circumference, its higher edge is interrupted and continued by a lower range. Some writers suppose the valley to have been originally formed by the falling in of an exhausted volcanic region; while others

Both

recognise in its conformation the truth of a popular tradition, that it was once the bed of a lake. hypotheses may be true, though referring, of course, to different eras of the globe; but this at least is certain, that the frequent earthquakes experienced in our own day, and described by Abul Fazel two centuries ago, attest the continued agency of volcanic fire.

The plain being almost perfectly level, is completely irrigated by the windings of the Jailum, one of the Punjaub rivers forming ultimately an important part of the Indus; but connected with this stream are three lakes, one of which is nearly twenty miles long, by about half that breadth. Besides these waters there are the numerous streams that feed the Jailum descending from the snowy mountains, and various small and beautiful tarns dotting here and there the emerald green of the plain with silver. The general character of these waters is profound repose-for rarely a breath of wind disturbs the slumber of Cashmere. The extensive surface even of the Walur lake, a traveller tells us, "is at no time rippled by a wave; and a boat passing over its mirror-like surface leaves a trace extending for miles, until lost on the distant bank." It does happen, notwithstanding, that an exception occurs to this calm of nature. An instantaneous blast descends from the mountains, and lashes lake, river, or tarn-whichever it strikes-into a sheet of foam as white as the crests of the Panjal; and then, dying as suddenly as it was born, leaves everything as calm, and silent, and slumbrous, as before.

But although the atmosphere is in general still, Cashmere is by no means the sleepy paradise of the merely voluptuous. Its greatest charm consists in its variety. On the northern side of the basin, the mountains fling

themselves into the vale in terrific precipices, down which the torrents from the region of perpetual snow rush headlong, or plunge over the steep in waterfalls; while on the southern side the ridges gradually descend, crowned with their gorgeous trees, and with green tablelands between, as smooth and level as an artificial lawn, and carpeted with grass of astonishing richness and verdure. In addition to the animals we have mentioned as inhabiting the higher lands, the flying squirrel is here seen darting from branch to branch; the aristocratic heron, whose feathers distinguish the turbans of the Sikh chiefs, is kept in colonies; the gigantic crane stalks along the banks of the Jailum; the notes of the bulbul, here the friend and fearless associate of man, are heard ringing through the groves, rivalled, and perhaps outdone, by the song of a beautiful kind of thrush. A thousand other small birds people the woods; but the purple butterfly of Cashmere, "the insect queen of eastern spring," appears to be only a figment of the imagination.

The lowlands are also adorned by trees, some indigenous, that are not found on the mountains. Of these the chunar is the most common, a grove of them intermingled with poplars having been planted by the Mogul emperors in every village. Roses and other flowers are reared in endless profusion, and a vast variety of annuals spring wild from the sod. Most of the fruits known in Europe attain to perfection, except the orange, lemon, fig, and olive. Of the water-nut that grows in the Walur lake, sixty thousand tons are raised every year. They are eaten raw, and dressed in a variety of ways, and form from choice the food of twenty thousand healthy persons, who sicken on any coarser fare. Cucumbers and melons are cultivated on floating islands on the lakes, and great numbers live entirely on them during the season,

The beans of the water-lily are also eaten in great quantities; but rice is the general food of the people.

Saffron is produced from the crocus in such quantities as to supply nearly the whole of Hindostan: but the fleece of the goat and sheep, both of home and foreign produce, and even of the yak and dog of Thibet, afford the most celebrated article of Cashmerean traffic. It is only the soft down under the hair which is used in the manufacture of shawls, a pair of which of the finer kind, according to Hugel, amounts at prime cost to 2007., viz., 807. for the labour of twenty-four artisans for twelve months; 301. for materials and dyeing; 707. for duty; and 201. for the charges of the establishment. Gun and pistol barrels, of extreme beauty and great value, are also manufactured here; leather of excellent quality prepared for saddlery; and paper finer than any in India made of the filaments of the wild hemp-plant. The attar of roses, composed of the oil which floats on the doubly distilled water, is the finest in the world, but never finds its way into Europe. Six hundred pounds weight of the flowers are required to produce a single ounce. These and other exports to Ladakh, Affghanistan, the Punjaub and other parts of India, are estimated at 400,0007., while the imports are set down at only 50,0001.

The natives of this celebrated region are the finest specimens extant of the Indian race to which they belong. The men are tall and symmetrically formed, and, in consequence perhaps of their symmetry, immensely strong. The women are voluptuously full in the figure, but exquisitely proportioned; in complexion they are delicate brunettes, but with cheeks blooming like their own roses; their teeth are remarkably fine, and their eyes are large, clear, and dazzlingly bright. Both sexes are