CASHMERE, CAriti.mtiti., or I: Nsitmlan, a pro \ince of Hindu:A:on and lOrmerly subjci t to the kin!• of Canda,,ar. It is situated between 33° lb' and .)4" la' Ninth Latitnib , and between 7a° and 75° I It is only a talley of an elliptical form, surrounded I v l.ifls, which hi its largest extent hone sent. - ert 1-wt st is hardly 80 miles ; its glean.st bre-1(A I! he from 40 to 50. Towards the Wirth I • t,t, this district of country is bounded by M t < se parts, are terror I the mountains of Thi bet ; a branch probably of that immense range which, near the Black Sea, penetrates through Ariminia, and skirting t ie south shore of the Caspian, extends by way ol the not t.,-eastein provinces of Persia to Thibet and China. 0:1 the eatt it is bounded by the river Chmeaub ; on the south-east and south by the territory of Jummoo and Kishtewar ; on the south-west and west by the territory of the Ghickers, Prounce, Muzzufk rabad. and some other independent districts. lit a north-eas tern direction from this provii.ce lies Great Thibet. Little Thibet is to the north-west of it. Southward are the provinces of Lahore and Cabul : and to the west Great, and to the north Little Bucharia. In the Ayecn A cherry, Cashmere is divided into two parts, viz. Meraje and Kamraje ; the former being the eastern part, and containing. the districts situated to the cast, the south east, and the north-east of Sirinagur, which is the prin cipal town of the province ; and the latter the western part, containing the north-west and south-west districts. On the south-cast of Sirinagur, at some distance be yond the great circle of mountains that surrounds the valley of Cashmere, is the district of Batman', which, though a fertile N'ale of ten or twelve miles in length, and dependent on the Cashmerian territory, is yet suf fered by the governors of that province to remain uncul tivated, that it may not allot d shelter or provision to the bordering I lindoo states, which, in former periods, have through this tract approached the interior passes of Cashmere. In as far as a place may be secured against foreign attack by means of its natural boundaries, there are few tracts of country to which such defence has been more liberally afforded than it has been to Cashmere. It is, in fact. so completely inclosed within the lofty mountains that separate India from Great Tartary, that it is only by climbing over rocks of an immense height that it can be entered on any side. Surrounded thus by mountains, whose summits arc, during a great part of the year, covered with snow. it is moreover elevated con siderably above the level of the adjacent low grounds to the south. Hence it is that the air of this district is colder than its latitude would lead it.; to expect ; and even within the space of little more than two degrees there is found an almost complete change in the vege table productions, few of these of ar.y kind being in this country the same with those of more .eut:thern India. and of the fruits of the latter region hardly any being to be traced here, except the mulberry.
The valley or country of Cashmere, thus situated, is yet celebrated through Upper Asia, and indeed gene rally has been in high reputation wherever it has been known, for its romantic beauties, the fertillity of its soil, the temperature of its atmosphere, and a picturesque variety of landscape. The author of the 4yeen Acberry
dwells N% ith rapture on the beauties of this province, and the ideas which have been entertained of it may, in some degree, be understood from the epithets by which it has been so commonly characterised : the happy valley,— the garden in perpetual spring,—the paradise of India. The periodical rains which almost deluge the rest of In dia are shut out of Cashmere by the height of the moun tains, so that only light showers fall there, but these arc in sufficient abundance to feed thousands of cascades, which are precipitated into the valley from every part of the stupendous and romantic bulwark by which this favoured spot is encircled. At the foot of that exterior chain there is an inner circle of hills abundantly clothed with grass, trees, and various sorts of vegetation, and frequented by numerous animals, both in a wild and in a tame state. The soil of the plains is every where the richest that can be conceived. Indeed, it is considered to have been composed of the mud deposited by the prin cipal river of the district, which flowing in this direction, and finding no outlet, at first formed its waters into a lake that covered the whole valley, but eventually hav ing opened for itself a passage through the mountains, left this spot so fertilized, an ample field for human in dustry and for the accommodation of a happy race. The circumstances which indicate that to have been the mode of its formation, appear to have been such as to have va tisfied a very competent judge. Although this account, says Major Rennel, has no living testimony to support it, yet history and tradition, and what is yet stronger, appearances have impressed a conviction of its truth on the minds of all who have visited the scene, and contem plated the different parts of it. It is indeed, he remarks, a mere natural effect, and such, he conceives, must be the economy of nature in all cases, when water is in closed in any part of its course by elevated lands. If the lake be formed near the sources of the river, and the ground is solid, no doubt such a -lake may remain for an indefinite length of time, or for ever, in the same state, for want of sufficient force in the river to work out a pas sage for itself; but when the lake has been formed in the lower parts of a river, even the most apparently in superable obstacles will, in consequence of the great accession of water, and consequently of strength, in such circumstances be forced at last to give way. This is exemplified, not singly in the instance of the river of Cashmere. In the same manner the Euphrates has been found to open a passage for itself through Mount Taurus, the Ganges through the Imaus. The length of time which the lake in Cashmere seems to have oc cupied in effecting its emancipation, is evinced by the great depth of soil deposited by it previously to its de parture.