WESTERN HINDOOSTAN. 45 



*' ticipated of the air and temper of Europe and the Indies, and 

 *' the other had been meerly European.''^ 



I NOW enter the kingdom of CaJJrmere, and immediately re- Kingdom of 

 fume the words of the elegant traveller. " Thoufands of caf- Cashmere. 

 *' cades defcend from the furrounding mountains of this en- 

 *« chanting plain, and forming rivulets meandring through all 

 " parts render it fo fair and fruitful, that one would take this 

 " whole kingdom for fome great Evergreen garden, intermixed 

 <' with villages and burroughs, difcovering themfelves between 

 " trees, and diverliiied by Meadows, Fields of Rice, Corn, and 

 " divers other Legumes, of Hemp and Saffron ; all interlaced 

 *' with ditches full of water, with Channels, with fmall Lakes 

 " and Rivulets here and there. Up and down and every Vvhere 

 " are alfo feen fome of our European plants, Flowers, and all 

 " forts of our Trees, as Apples, Pears, Prunes, Apricots, 

 " Cherries, Nuts, Vines; the particular Gardens are full of 

 «* Melons, Skirrets, Beets, RadiQies, all forts of our Pot-herbs, 

 " and of fome we have not." 



This Happy Valley, this Paradise of Hindoostan, of Once a LAf;s, 

 the Indian poets, is of an oval form, about eighty miles long and 

 forty broad, and was once fuppofed to have been entirely filled 

 with water; which having burft its mound, left this vale in- 

 riched to the moft diftant ages by the fertilizing mud of the 

 rivers which fed its expanfe. This delicious fpot is furrounded 

 by mountains of vaft height and rude afpe(5t, covered with fnow, 

 or enchafed in glacieres, in which this enchanting jewel is firmly 

 fet. At the foot of the exterior chain is an interior circle of 

 hills, fertile in grafs, abundant in trees and various forts of ve- 

 getation, and full of all kinds of cattle, as Cows, Sheep, Goats, 



Gazelles, 



