KASHMIR VALLEYS 267 



strong sun, and cheap labour are not these conditions 

 good enough to tempt the laziest to make the small 

 effort necessary to produce such rich results? 

 The heat is never so great as to make work unpleasant, 

 and it is vastly more repaying than in the plains. 

 Then there is much to be done in the way of 

 collecting, complete and careful collections of natural 

 products, minerals, flowers, etc., being badly wanted 

 for an accurate knowledge of the country. Good 

 specimens of coins, curios, and stamps are in demand, 

 for there is not yet anything like a real record of the 

 land. 



Besides these things, much can be learned from the 

 natives themselves and their methods of carving, paint- 

 ing, and metal beating are curious and worth imitation. 

 For those who prefer out-door exercises, every kind can 

 be enjoyed boating, swimming in the summer, skating, 

 tobogganing, and sleighing in the winter. There are 

 good links in various places for golfers. Tennis can also 

 be indulged in, and for men there are cricket and football 

 of varying quality. Riding of every sort is to be had 

 from polo, on well-kept grounds, to wild paper chases, 

 and still wilder hunts and wanderings on pony backs 

 among the mountains, where the difficulties and dangers 

 are such as to please the most ardent seeker of adventure. 



For the artistic, the land is so full of beauties of 

 every kind that no one for an instant need be without 

 subject for pencil, brush, or camera, and music may be 

 indulged as in no other part of India, the climate being 

 kinder to all instruments. Pianos do not go out of tune 

 after an hour's rains, or violins, zithers, etc., crack from 

 long- continued drought as they do in those parts where 

 extremes and changes are more sudden, 

 u 



