VALUE OF BEAUTY 203 



in the discharge of their official duties than what I 

 learned of its beauties. But this utility of the 

 region as a military barrier is not the characteristic 

 which has most value to men in general. What to 

 them has most value is its beauty — the awful beauty 

 of its terrific gorges and stupendous heights. And 

 it is knowledge of this beauty which is most worth 

 having, and which has most geographical value. 



Besides exploring the far region beyond Kashmir 

 I was also employed for years in exercising a general 

 supervision over the entire administration of Kash- 

 mir itself. Reports from experts used to come to 

 me containing every description of geographical 

 knowledge. Surveyors would send in maps for 

 general purposes, for the construction of roads and 

 railways, for the delimitation of village boundaries, 

 and for registering the ownership of individual 

 fields. Geologists would report on the crustal 

 relief (as the features of Mother-Earth are in- 

 elegantly termed). Forestry, agricultural, and 

 botanical experts would report on the productivity 

 of the soil, on the plants and trees which are or 

 might be grown, and on their present and possible 

 distribution. Mineralogists would report on the 

 minerals, their distribution $nd the possibility of 

 commercially exploiting them. Every aspect of 

 geographical science was presented to me. And 

 each particular kind of knowledge for its own par- 

 ticular purpose was highly valuable. But the point 

 I would wish to make is that my geographical 

 knowledge of Kashmir would have been incom- 

 plete — and I would have been wanting in knowledge 

 of its most valuable characteristic — if I had had no 



