60 
ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY OF KAS'MIR. [Extra No. 2, 
are also reproduced in all Muhammadan abstracts of the Chronicle. 1 
From Haidar Malik’s Tarikh the legend became known to Dr. Bernier 
who prefaces with it liis description of the ‘ Paradis terrestre des Indes.’ 2 
It has since found its way into almost every European account of 
Kasmir. 
It is probable that this legend had much to do with drawing from 
the first the attention of European travellers 
Lacustrme^featuies cer tain physical facts apparently supporting 
the belief that Kasmir was in comparatively 
late geological times wholly or in great part occupied by a vast lake. 
But few seem to have recognized so clearly as the late Mr. Drew, the true 
relation between the legend and the above facts. I cannot put his view 
which from a critical point of view appears to be self-evident, more 
clearly than by quoting his words: “The traditions of the natives — 
traditions that can be historically traced as having existed for ages — tend 
in the same direction, [viz., of the Yale having been occupied by a lake,] 
and these have usually been considered to corroborate the conclusions 
drawn from the observed phenomena. Agreeing, as I do, with the con¬ 
clusion, I cannot count the traditions as perceptibly strengthening it; 
I have little doubt that they themselves originated in the same physical 
evidence that later travellers have examined.” 3 
The geological observations upon which modern scientific enquirers 
like Mr. Drew and Colonel Godwin Austin, have based their belief as 
to the former existence of a great lake, are mainly concerned with the 
undoubted ‘ lacustrine deposits ’ found in the so-called Udars or Karewa 
plateaus to be noticed below. But it seems to me very doubtful whether 
we can reasonably credit the early Kasmirians with a correct scientific 
interpretation of such geological records. It appears far more probable 
that the legend was suggested by an observation of the general form of 
the valley and by a kind of natural inference from the historical changes 
in the country’s hydrography. 
We shall see below that great drainage operations took place at 
various periods of the country’s history which extended the cultivated 
ground and reduced the area covered by lakes and marshes. To any one, 
however ignorant of geology, but acquainted with the latter fact, the 
picture of a vast lake originally covering the whole Yalley might natur¬ 
ally suggest itself. It would be onough for him to stand on a hill-side 
somewhere near the Yolur, to look down on the great lake and the 
adjoining marshes, and to glance then beyond towards that narrow gorge 
1 Compare, e.g., Ain-i Akb., ii. p. 380 ; Wilson, Essay , p. 93. 
2 Seo Bernier, Travels in the Mogul Empire, ed, Constable, p. 393. 
3 See Jummoo, p. 207. 
