KASHMIR VALLEYS 13 



share this very " casual " appearance, and are in marked 

 contrast to the massive stone temples, one or two of 

 which we passed. These are found in many places, 

 and speak eloquently of a bygone race of solid 

 builders, whose structures have stood from one thousand 

 to two thousand years successfully defying wildest 

 storms and earthquakes, flood, and, as some think, the 

 power of " villainous saltpetre." No one considers them 

 now, for the people are Mahomedan, and the Hindu 

 rulers prefer their new little gaudy tinfoil tabernacles ; 

 in fact, the modern Kashmirian, save for his sturdiness, 

 is not a " solid person," and if one meets any monument 

 likely to be permanent, one may be certain that a 

 Britisher is at the back of it. For example, the Jhelum 

 road, engineered by Englishmen, and achieved under 

 their guidance at vast expenditure of life, money, and 

 ceaseless perseverance, the nature of the rock out 

 of which it is cut making the work both difficult and 

 dangerous owing to constant slips and cleavages. It is 

 now complete, and connects Kashmir with the outer 

 world, whereby there accrues to the State that general 

 prosperity which always follows the Pax Britannica, as 

 great and valuable a reality in this wild corner of the 

 earth, the bloody playground for many centuries of 

 countless conquerors, as at home in London. It was 

 a pleasant experience, and a tiny but sure proof of the 

 wide influence of that same power, to arrive late in the 

 afternoon of the second day, having driven two hundred 

 miles through the heart of a wild, mountainous country, 

 and find a riverside rest-house, where lodgings were as 

 comfortable and property and life as secure as at any 

 Thames-side inn. 



