302 WANDERINGS OF A 



Ahamid Khan attempted to dispute the sovereignty of the 

 valley with Goulab Singh, but gave up the project from a 

 fear that the Cashmerians in his army would show the white 

 feather when it came to blows. I was assured of the truth 

 of the above statement by a native merchant. It is likely, 

 however, that the rajah was afraid of British interference. 

 Be that as it may, there can be no question that the making 

 away of the Cashmere valley was one of the grandest 

 political blunders of its day, and one which will be con- 

 stantly felt as long as we hold the Punjaub. Independent of 

 the vast addition to our Eastern revenues by opening out a 

 magnificent field for English enterprise, Cashmere would 

 have secured advantages in a military point of view of the 

 greatest importance, by affording splendid and healthy sites 

 for a reserve army, which, on the shortest notice, might have 

 been made available for any emergency in the North-western 

 Provinces ; but instead, its noble prairies, plains, and forests, 

 scarcely surpassed by those of any other country, have been 

 sold to rulers whose whole end and object have been to reap 

 and never sow. 



The continual wet state of the weather was apparently the 

 chief obstacle to our success, and the higher up the moun- 

 tains the more unpleasant it became ; but, determined 

 to give every region a trial, we made for the top of the 

 ravine to a wild sequestered spot at the foot of the glacier. 

 Several brown bears were seen, and I killed a male, from 

 which a large quantity of grease was obtained. There was 

 an old bullet wound in his hip, and another through his 

 flank. We had now reached the Ultima Thule of our wan- 

 derings in quest of deer. Never did hunters work harder, for we 

 toiled across the steep mountain-sides, over melting snow-beds 

 and slippery slopes, but with no good results ; for no sooner did 



