94 FIRST GLIMPSE OF '' THE VALE." 



ing features of the landscape they present, as they lie em- 

 bowered among groves of walnut and poplar trees, and 

 grand old chenars (oriental plane) ! which latter, with their 

 pale - grey trunks, and summer foliage of brilliant green, 

 constitute one of the principal ornaments of the Cash- 

 mere valley. 



Before us, at last, lay the far-famed " Vale of Cashmere." 

 There was music in the very name, which to our youthful 

 minds conveyed ideas of the " nightingale's hymn," " love- 

 lighted eyes," and everything enchanting. And, truly, no- 

 where could a spot have been more aptly chosen for a poetic 

 romance than the scene of " the feast of roses." There is, 

 however, a dark side to the picture of this lovely vale ; for 

 the fearful epidemics, famines, fires, and earthquakes with 

 which, during my own recollection, it has so often been 

 visited, and in some instances partially devastated, tend to 

 show that it is not always a " valley of bliss." But I am 

 wasting time in thus descanting on the charms and woes of 

 a country that is now so well known. 



We did not give ourselves up very long to romantic ideas 

 about the vale, as our thoughts were just then centred more 

 in the ibex on its neighbouring mountains — so, having hired 

 two of the picturesque-looking boats of the country at Bara- 

 moola, we at once started up the river, and reached Srinug- 

 gur next evening. At this quaint old wooden metropolis 

 we made a short stay to complete a few final arrangements, 

 and to engage shikarees before proceeding to Wurdwan — a 

 wild, remote district eastward of the valley. The Wurdwan 

 mountains, which are now so well known to sportsmen, 

 were generally considered the best ground for ibex. Early 

 in the spring, whilst the winter snows still lay low down, ibex 

 might, at the time I write of, have been found on the hills 

 rising immediately above, and north of the Cashmere valley ; 

 but the old bucks receded with the melting snows to higher 

 and more distant solitudes. 



With regard to engaging shikarees at the capital, subse- 



