"There eternal summer dwells, Nard and cassia's balmy smells." Srinagar, the capital of the country, has a very fine appearance when one does not look closely into its details. As the Kashmírí has been called the Neapolitan of the East, so his capital has been compared to Florence, and his great river to the Arno. But there is no European town which has such a fine placid sweep of river through it. The capital dates from 59 A.D., and portions of it might be set down to any conceivable date. For the most part the houses either rise up from the Jhelam or from the canals with which the city is intersected, and are chiefly of thin brick walls supported in wooden frames. Being often three storeys high, and in a most ruinous condition, the walls present anything but straight lines, and it is a marvel that many of the houses continue standing at all. Some of the canals present deliciously picturesque scenes, such as even Venice cannot boast of, and the view from any of the five bridges across the Jhelam is very striking; but, as remarked, it is better to leave the interior unvisited beyond floating through the canals. The British Residency, and the bungalows provided free of charge for European visitors, are above the city, on the right bank of the river, which here presents a noble appearance, and in a splendid line of poplar-trees. A wooded island opposite them adds to the beauty of the scene. Almost every place about Srinagar that one wants to go to can be reached by boat, and the wearied traveller may enjoy a delicious repose. There is one excursion from Srinagar, which can easily be made in a day by boat, that is specially worthy of notice, and it takes through canals and through the apple-tree garden into the Dal or City Lake, and to two of the gardens and summer-houses of the Mogul Emperors. I write of the Valley of Roses on the shore of Ulleswater, the grandest and not the least beautiful of the English lakes: the mountains and sky are reflected with perfect distinctness in the deep unruffled water, and the renewed power of the earth is running up through the trees, and breaking out into a dim mist of buds and tiny leaves; but exquisite as the scene before me is, its beauty cannot dim or equal my remembrance of the lakes of Kashmír, though even to these the English scenery is superior as regards the quality, to use a phrase of Wordsworth's, of being "graduated by nature into soothing harmony." The Dal is connected with the Jhelam by the Sonti-Kol or Apple-tree Canal, which presents one of the finest combinations of wood and water in the world. The scene is English in character; but I do not know of any river-scene in England which is equal to it-so calm is the water, so thickly is the stream covered with tame aquatic birds of very varied plumage, so abundant the fish, so magnificent, as well as beautiful, the trees which rise from its lotus-fringed, smooth, green banks. An Afghan conqueror of Kashmír proposed to cover this piece of water with a trellis-work of vines, supported from the trees on the one side to those on the other; but that would have shut out the view of the high, wild mountains which heighten, by their contrast, the beauty and peacefulness of the scene below. Many of the trees, and a whole line of them. on one side, are enormous planes (Platanus orientalis), mountains of trees, and yet beautiful in shape and colour, with their vast masses of foliage reflected in the calm, clear water. From thence we pass into the Dal, a lake about five miles long, with half the distance in breadth, one side being bounded by great trees, or fading into a reedy waste, and the other encircled by lofty mountains. The most curious feature of this lake is the floating gardens upon the surface of its transparent water. The reeds, sedges, water-lilies, and other aquatic plants which grow together in tangled confusion, are, when they cluster together more thickly than usual, detached from their roots. The leaves of the plants are then spread out over the stems and covered with soil, on which melons and cucumbers are grown. These floating islands form a curious and picturesque feature in the landscape, and their economical uses are considerable. Moorcroft mentions having seen vines upon them and has supplied the detailed information regarding them which has been made use of by succeeding travellers and statisticians. "A more economical method of raising cucumbers cannot be devised," -and, he might have added, of melons also. According to Cowper, A cucumber!" "No sordid fare, But, thanks to these floating gardens, you don't require to ruin yourself in order to eat cucumbers in Kashmír; and the melons are as good as they are cheap, and must have valuable properties; for Captain Bates says, "those who live entirely on them soon become fat," 1 which probably arises from the sugar they contain. Usually, in the fruit season, two or three watchers remain all night in a boat attached to these islands, in order to protect them from water-thieves. On the Dal I came across several boatmen fishing up the root of the lotus with iron hooks attached to long poles. This yellow root is not unpalatable raw, but is usually eaten boiled, along with condiments. Southey's lines, though strictly applicable only to the red-flowering lotus, yet suggest a fair idea of the lotusleaves on this Kashmír lake, as they are moved by the wind or the undulations of the water. "Around the lotus stem It rippled, and the sacred flowers, that crown And as the wind upheaves Their broad and buoyant weight, the glossy leaves Still more useful for the people of Kashmír, as an article of diet, is the horned water-nut (Traba bispinosa), which is ground into flour and made into bread. No less than 60,000 tons of it are said to be taken from the Wúlar Lake alone every season, or sufficient to supply about 13,000 people with food for the entire year. These nuts are to be distinguished from the nuts, or rather beans, of the lotus (Nelumbium speciosum), which are also used as an article of food, and prized as a delicacy. These, with the lotus-roots, and the immense quantity of fish, provide abundance of food for a much larger population than is to be found in the neighbourhood of the Kashmir lakes; but of what avail is such bounty of Providence and all the land lying round, when the first conditions of human prosperity are wanting? Passing the Silver Island and the Island of Chúnárs, I went up to the Shalimar Bagh, or Garden of Delight, a garden and pleasure-house, the work of the Emperor Jehángír and of his spouse Núr Jahán; but fine as this place is, I preferred the Nishat Bagh, another garden of pleasure, which is more in a recess of the lake, and also was a retreat constructed by the same royal pair, and planned by the empress herself. This garden of pleasure is more picturesquely situated, though shaded by not less magnificent trees. The mountains rise up close behind it, and suggest a safe retreat both from the dangers and the cares of state; and its view of the lake, including the Sona Lank, or Golden Island, is more suggestive of seclusion and quiet enjoyment. Ten terraces, bounded by magnificent trees, and with a stream of water falling over them, lead up to the latticed pavilion at the end of this garden. Between the double storeys of this pavilion the stream flows through a marble, or, at least, a limestone. tank, and the structure is shaded by great chúnár trees, while, through a vista of their splendid foliage, we look down the terraces and water-courses upon the lake below. This was, and still is, a fitting place in which a great, luxurious, pleasure-loving emperor might find repose, and gather strength for the more serious duties of power. Jehangir was a strange but intelligible character. One historian briefly says of him-"Himself a drunkard during his whole life, he punished all who used wine." And after the unsuccessful rebellion of his son Khusrú, he made that prince pass along a line of 700 of his friends who had assisted him in rebelling. These . |