236 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



quaint Kashmir boat took me up to Srinagar ; and it 

 was delightful to glide up the backwaters of the 

 Jhelam, which afforded a highway to the capital. It 

 was the commencement and the promise of repose, 

 which I very seriously needed, and in a beautiful land. 

 At Srinagar, where I stayed for a fortnight, I was 

 the guest of the Resident, the amiable and accom- 

 plished Mr Le Poer Wynne, whose early death has 

 disappointed many bright hopes. I had thus every 

 opportunity of seeing all that could be seen about the 

 capital, and of making myself acquainted with the 

 state of affairs in Kashmir. I afterwards went up 

 to Islamabad, Martand, Achibal, Vernag, the Rozlu 

 valley, and finally went out of Kashmir by way of 

 the Manas and "Wular Lakes, and the lower valley of 

 the Jhelam, so that I saw the most interesting places 

 in the country, and all the varieties of scenery which 

 it affords. That country has been so often visited 

 and described, that, with one or two exceptions, I 

 shall only touch generally upon its characteristics. It 

 doubtless owes some of its charm to the character of 

 the regions in its neighbourhood. As compared with 

 the burning plains of India, the sterile steppes of 

 Tibet, and the savage mountains of the Himaliya and 

 of Afghanistan, it presents an astonishing and beauti- 

 ful contrast. After such scenes even a much more 

 commonplace country might have afforded a good 

 deal of the enthusiasm, which Kashmir has excited in 

 Eastern poetry, and even in common rumour ; but 



