KASHMIR, 
33 
however, becomes much grander, and the road more 
difficult, for some of my baggage did not turn up for 
several days after we left Kulan. The few inhabitants 
met with above Kulan seem to live chiefly by tending 
flocks, and are located there by the Kashmir officials, 
for the purpose of keeping open the communication 
with Tibet during the winter months, and of 
assisting travellers during summer. Nothing could 
exceed the beauty and grandeur of the scenery in the 
Sind Valley ; and large game — bears and the Kash- 
mir stag — being comparatively plentiful, this is one 
of the favourite resorts of visitors to Kashmir. We 
halted on the 18th June at Sonamarg, and were 
joined by the Yarkand envoy. Here I first saw the 
Himalayan Chough and the Orange bullfinch ; the 
latter was very abundant, and so tame that it seemed a 
cruelty to shoot it. At Baltal we were at the end of 
the Sind Valley, and there we encamped, near a 
large log-hut, at the foot of the Zoji-la Pass, which 
leads over into Tibet, or rather into the Dras Valley. 
Kashmir has been so often and so well described, 
and is so well known, being visited by hundreds of 
Europeans every summer, that it appears superfluous 
to say much more regarding it. As regards vegeta- 
tion and climate, it somewhat resembles the mildest 
parts of the South of England. Cherries and apricots 
ripen in June and July, grapes in August, and apples 
and pears in September and October. The clouds 
which bring up the periodical rains from the Indian 
Ocean do not easily surmount the snowy range which 
bounds the valley to the south, and consequently the 
''rains" are never so abundant, nor so regular, as on the 
Panjab side of this range. There are frequent showers 
D 
