KASHMIR. 255 



of the English lakes : the mountains and sky are 

 reflected with perfect distinctness in the deep un- 

 ruffled water, and the renewed power of the earth 

 is running up through the trees, and breaking out 

 into a dim mist of buds and tiny leaves ; but ex- 

 quisite as the scene before me is, its beauty cannot 

 dim or equal my remembrance of the lakes of Kash- 

 mir, though even to these the English scenery is 

 superior as regards the quality, to use a phrase of 

 Wordsworth's, of being " graduated by nature into 

 soothing harmony." 



The Dal is connected with the Jhelam by the Sont- 

 i-Ivol or Apple-tree Canal, which presents one of the 

 iinest combinations of wood and water in the world. 

 The scene is English in character ; but I do not know 

 of any river scene in England which is equal to it 

 so calm is the water, so thickly is the stream covered 

 with tame aquatic birds of very varied plumage, so 

 abundant the fish, so magnificent, as well as beautiful, 

 the trees which rise from its lotus-fringed, smooth, 

 green banks. An Afghan conqueror of Kashmir pro- 

 posed to cover this piece of water with a trellis-work 

 of vines, supported from the trees on the one side to 

 those on the other ; but that would have shut out the 

 view of the high, Avild mountains which heighten, by 

 their contrast, the beauty and peacefulness of the 

 scene below. Many of the trees, and a whole line 

 of them on one side, are enormous planes (Platanus 

 orientalis), mountains of trees, and yet beautiful in 



