KASHMIR. 253 



shawl trade, but it has for the time being returned 

 to its former state ; and, at the period of collapse, 

 the Maharajah humanely made enormous purchases 

 on his own account. The revenue from this source 

 has diminished to at least half what it was some 

 years ago ; but still a superior woven shawl will 

 bring, even in Kashmir, as much as 300 sterling ; 

 and about 130,000 worth of shawls is annually 

 exported, 90,000 worth going to Europe. The 

 finest of the goat's wool employed in this manufac- 

 ture comes from Turfan, in the Yarkand territory ; 

 and it is only on the wind-swept steppes of Central 

 Asia that animals are found to produce so fine a 

 wool. The shawl- weavers get miserable wages, and 

 are allowed neither to leave Kashmir nor change 

 their employment, so that they are nearly in the 

 position of slaves ; and their average wage is only 

 about three-halfpence a-day. 



Srinagar itself has a very fine appearance when 

 one does not look closely into its details. As the 

 Kashmiri has been called the Neapolitan of the East, 

 so his capital has been compared to Florence, and his 

 great river to the Arno. But there is no European 

 town which has such a fine placid sweep of river 

 through it. The capital dates from 59 A.D., and 

 portions of it might be set down to any conceivable 

 date. For the most part the houses either rise up 

 from the Jhelam or from the canals with which the 

 city is intersected, and are chiefly of thin brick walls 



