The river of this place alluded to, which continues to pass through the province, is still, even within its limits, large, and navigable at least for small craft. Its cur rent, throughout the whole valley, is remarkably smooth —a proof of the uncommon flatness of the country, as the body of water contained in it is very great. Its breadth is irregular : in some places it is not less than two miles. In one part of its course it is formed, by the hollow sur face of the country, into a sheet of water, of seven or right miles in circumference, known by the name of the 'culler or Wuller. The outlet through which it departs from the valley, and where it runs with much greater rapidity and force than elsewhere, is at Barchnnooleh, between two steep mountains, whence proceeding, it, after a long course, joins with the Chunaub. In this river, now known by the name of the Behut or the Che lum, we recognise the famous Hydaspes of antiquity, which Alexander the Great passed over, about 100 miles below the limits of the valley.
As the surface of this district is generally flat, and it is copiously watered, it yields abundant crops of rice, which is the common food of the inhabitants. At the base of the surrounding hills, where the land is higher, there arc cultivated wheat, barley, and various other descriptions of grain. Hemp and saffron are also com mon productions, and iron of an excellent quality is found in the adjacent mountains. A great number of nuts for dyeing are raised here. A wine is made in the country resembling Madeira ; also a spirituous liquor is distilled from the grape. The vegetable productions of Cash mere, moreover, are not such only as are subservient to mere unadorned use. The plane-tree, the species of it termed the platanus orientalis, which, though common in most parts of Asia, is said to arrive at greater perfection here than in other countries, has, when in full foliage, a grand and beautiful appearance, and in hot weather it affords a refreshing shade. Still more deserving of no tice, in this view, is the rose of Cashmere, the season of the first appearance of which is hailed with so much delight by the natives, and of which the essential oil or ottar is held in universal estimation. In all directions in this province, there occur the European plants, flow ers, and fruit and other trees ; and in the gardens there is abundance of melons, skirrets, beets, radishes, with all the variety of our pot-herbs. The pasture-grounds of Cashmere are plentifully stocked with the useful domes tic animals, as cows, sheep, and goats. There is a kind of sheep here called Hundoo, which is used to carry bur thens. There are also gazels and musks. Game abounds in the country, and there is a plentiful and productive stock of bees. Indeed the whole of this favoured dis trict may be said to resemble a garden, interspersed with towns and villages, which rise amongst green meadows, beautiful trees, and all the variety of other vegetable productions ; watered by numerous streams and rivulets, which, flowing in all directions from the surrounding rising grounds, hasten to convey their tribute to the Be hut or Chelum, the parent of the soil ; intersected by canals, which wind through it in every variety of form ; still farther diversified by lakes, in some of which are observed floating islands ; and cheered, enriched, and en livened by all the varied aspects of active and animated nature. Still one dreadful evil of a physical kind is here experienced. This is the frequent recurrence of earth quakes, to secure themselves against the fatal effects of which, the inhabitants commonly build all their houses of wood, of which an abundant supply is to be obtained front the neighbouring mountains.
The Cashmcrians are considered to be the most in genious of all the nations of India. With as much taste for poetry and capacity for science as the Persians, they are more industrious and more laborious. They fabri cate the best writing paper of the East, which was for merly an article of extensive traffic, as were also its lack er-ware, cutlery, and sugars. Their elegant works in wood, arc in request in all the surrounding districts of country, and they are deservedly admired for their ad dress and expertness in the arts of varnishing, veneer In., and gilding. But the most noted and the most im
portant of all the artificial productions or Cashmere, con sists in its shawls, which, ss ith good reason apparently, have attained a celebrity hitherto unrivalled. It has heen alleged that the wool (.1' which one description of these shays Is is made, is not found in the country, Init is brought from Thibet. It has also been pretty common ly understood that those of another kind are made or goats' hair. Both of these notions seem to he found ed in mistake. The breed of sheep, whence the wool in question is obtained, though not peculiar to this coun try, is at least common to it with Thibet and liuutan, and the shawl, which have been considered to be form ed from goats' hair, are the produce of the wool of the The same circumstances which constitute Cashmere one or the finest regions of the earth, contribute also not a little to the beauty or its flocks and the superiority of its wool ; its pure air and constantly serene sky, brilliant nights, continual dews, innumerable springs which wa ter the hills and the plains, and the union within itself from its particular situation, in respect to seg-etable pro duce, or the advantages of all climates. Particularly, the mountains which surround this rich and fertile dis trict yield abundance or aromatic plants, that afford ex cellent pasture ror sheep; they are covered almost the hole: year with thyme and sweet marjoram. By a due care on their own Nit, added to these advantages, for which they arc indebted to nature, the Cashmerians obtain in favour of tel manufactures that to which chiefly they owe their excellence, the finest wool in the world. Thu sheep front which this wool is procured, is one of the most beautiful of its species: its mean length is from 36 to 41) inches, its height from 20 to 22, and its weig.it •nom 55 to 6u pounds. The most distin guishing ch. rztetcrs of this race, are a small head and lively eyes; their front is not rough, and they have a long and svrink.ed dewlap. The lambs are brought forth with crispy wool on tne flanks, but they have only a fess docks on the back and along the spine. Each sheep produces at an average about three sees, of thirty ounces, of clean wool. It is a valuable and essential quality of these sheep, essittial at least in such a dis trict or countty as that to which they are confined, tuat they can bear the extremes either of heat or cold. Yet. to secure them against the injurious effects that might possibly ensue from their exposure to the greater heats of the summer season, they are, during the continuance of these, made to traverse a lake or a river several tunes a day. In Cashmere, moreover, as in Greece and in Spain, the sheep are moved from place to place within the limits ol the province, (a range, narrow indeed as to but very considerable in respect to variety of cli mate), that throughout the whole cow se of the year they may be kept nearly in an equal temperature. At the same time, dun- are lleVer, with a view to tits ob ject. crowded into cots or confined places, which, it is justly apprehended, would be in every respect only inju rious to them. By such management, at once the health of the flock is preserved, and the wool is whitened and becomes of a texture soft and silky. Without any far ther care, besides that of preferring always a lamb of the second birth for a breeding rant, avoiding to cross the breed, providing a little nourishment for the sustenance of the animals at those seasons, when they are not suf fered to range abroad, or when little is to be found for them in the fields, and meeting, with a few simple re medics, any insipientor appic1i nded di ,ea.e, the Cash therians ohniin thai extraordinarily fine Nalf C silky wool, which generally, from the nape of the neck to the flank', is from 20 to 22 inches in length, and even on the flanks and lower parts of the body, is not less than five or six, and equally of that length, which, iu Slott, both for fine ness and lOr whiteness, surpasses ever) other wool, even the most celebrated for those qualities throughout the know!' world.