VALE OF CASHMERE. 211 



beautiful sketches of different parts of the country, 

 which quite put Fred and myself out of conceit 

 with our own attempts to imitate Nature's glorious 

 handiwork. A large panorama he took of the 

 whole valley from Kampoor, looking northward, 

 was one of the most beautiful specimens of Oriental 

 landscape-painting I have seen, as it embraced 

 every kind of scenery — the gigantic Nan-ga Pur- 

 but peak, which is over twenty-six thousand feet 

 in elevation above the sea, forming a conspicuous 

 object in the background, although about eighty 

 miles distant. This view comprised all that was 

 remarkable in the valley near the capital ; the 

 Hurree Purbut fort, with its castellated battle- 

 ments, the Tukht-i-Suliman, the lake, with the 

 Haramook mountain, and the snowy ranges beyond, 

 all clearly delineated with the most faithful 

 perspicuity. 



What Englishman ever rambled through this 

 beautiful valley without cursing the stupid, short- 

 sighted policy of our Government in selling " the 

 garden of the world," the most suitable of all our 

 Eastern possessions for European colonisation, to 

 p2 



