770 Some account of the valley of Kashmir. [Sept. 



standing near the city, very curious, being built in the water with 

 ornaments of the hawal flower (lotus). Inscriptions are few : I 

 have found but one which I enclose*. I have traversed Kashmir with 

 Wilson's treatise, and gone over the names with the most learned 

 pandits there, but could not get much information from them beyond 

 the identity of many names and places which was very interesting. 

 A great part of the wall that lines the river in the city, is built (for 

 a mile and a half) of stones taken from Hindu ruins : some of them 

 are of immense size. One at Mathan and another at Patau is of 9 

 feet in length and of proportionate width and depth. The figures in 

 relief are usually of Kheobuwani the Kashmerian name of Pdrbati. 

 Their temples, with the exception of one in the Bdramula Pass, which is 

 of white granite cut from some vast blocks that have rolled down near 

 it, (the blocks themselves being also chiselled by way of ornament,) 

 are all of a bluish gray secondary limestone, so soft and fine as to 

 resemble almost Roman travertine I have never been able to find 

 out the exact spot whence any of these have been cut. 



I have not been fortunate enough to find any fossil remains in the 

 valley between the Pooneh and Bunker ; in the sandstone cliff I found 

 the end of a huge thigh-bone, (a fossil,) now in Captain Wade's 

 possession. I also discovered a bed of coal near Rdjawer. The old 

 Sanskrit Kashmiri name of the town of Bij Beari is Vijaya Shur, as I 

 am told. 



The river in the city is about 80 yards in width and runs rapidly 

 there only. It is crossed by six bridges of stones and deodar trunks. 

 The Shakar ghar is a miserable looking place. Hari parbat (on which 

 the fort stands), commands the city and could be very strongly fortified. 

 The inhabitants of Kashmir are about 180,000 in number. Four 

 seer of rice is bought for one anna in consequence ; the thinned 

 population is the cause of this cheapness. Kashmir is liable to two 

 destructive visitations, one by snow falling on the mountains in Sep- 

 tember which chills the air and damages the rice in flower ; the 

 other by the overflowing of the river which could be prevented if the 

 dams were restored with the same solidity that they could boast of 

 in the time of the Chyattar. A lakh and a half worth of damage 

 was done last year by the floods. It is not the maharaja's fault but of 

 those under him. He told me that he had allowed two lakhs of rupees 

 to be laid out on the Shakar ghar, I am quite sure that 2000 rupees 

 would be nearer the mark ; the rest has been appropriated by the 

 different governors. An unfortunate Zemindar who sows 51 Kawah 



* See Plate XXXVI. fig. 6. 



