Fourteen Thousand Feet High 195 



at the right season, is not, and immense baskets of 

 great yellow pears and peaches were brought us at 

 all times of the day for the sum of a few coppers. 

 Cooky laid in stores of vegetables. 



We spent the afternoon with a party from the 

 Residency in an expedition in boats across the Dhal 

 Lake, with a view to picnicing in some of the old 

 gardens on its banks, our boats racing each other 

 at spasmodic intervals, dictated by the impulse of the 

 Kashmiris who paddled us. A canal leads into the 

 Dhal Lake an immense stretch of the calmest of 

 water, covered in places with great lotus leaves and 

 their heavy pink blossoms, while in every open reach 

 our boats cut into the reflexions of the snow 

 mountains. 



In some places, upon sheets of the broad water-lily 

 leaves, a shallow layer of soil is actually upheld, and 

 grows vegetables in abundance. These floating gardens 

 are secured by an occasional <c punt " pole to the bottom 

 of the lake, which prevents their drifting hither and 

 thither ; they were covered with tomatoes, grapes, 

 peaches, cauliflowers, potatoes, etc. 



We were paddled across, in the course of an hour 

 or. so, to the Shalimar Bagh, one of the old pleasure- 

 gardens of the Moguls, where we all scrambled out. 

 The crumbling, grey stone steps up from the water's 

 edge, the green terraces, the cool, thick plane-trees, 

 the stone walks, and the fountains were all redolent 

 of the old luxurious Mogul race, of moonlight, music, 

 and wine, of the sensuous and aromatic East. We 



