PREFACE
The increased facilities which have been provided during the last few years for visiting the beautiful Valley of Kashmir, and more particularly the opening of the Jhelum Valley Cart Road, is inducing a much larger number of persons than in former years to spend their short leave in a visit to the lovely scenery to be found in the Valley.

A suit of puttoo--a rough serge manufactured in the country--may be had at Srinagar for about Rs. 8, and though the style and fit would scarcely suit Bond Street, it makes a capital and comfortable wear for mountain travel. Visitors should not forget their dress suits, for Srinagar is not altogether uncivilised.

A new bridge has recently been constructed, the old suspension bridge having been swept away by the floods of 1893. The Jhelum valley road is a triumph of modern engineering. It is cut into the sides of the mountains and follows the course of the Jhelum as closely as possible. The work was begun in 1880 and completed ten years after.

At one time shawls were largely exported, and the trade gave employment to 25,000 men, and exceeded 30 lakhs in value annually. The industry is, however, now almost a thing of the past, the Franco-German war having given it a blow from which it never recovered. The articles at present exported from Kashmir are chiefly fruits, drugs, leather, ghee, timber and woollen goods. The imports are chiefly cotton piece-goods, metals, salt, sugar, tea and petroleum.
Kashmir is celebrated for several artistic industries, which have obtained for the country great renown on account of the excellent taste and skill shown by the workmen. We have already referred to the shawl trade. The real richly embroidered shawl is now seldom manufactured, and in its place woollen goods of cheaper quality, in the shape of square or oblong shawls, plain or embroidered, are produced. Shawls are of two kinds, loom-wove (binanti), where the whole pattern is wrought on the loom with an endless series of threads of all colours, and amlikar, in which a foundation is laid of a plain or variously coloured fabric, the surface of which is minutely worked over by hand in patterns embroidered in find woollen thread or silk. In shawl goods the qualities of fineness and softness depend on the wool used. A shawl-loom is worked thus:--The pattern is first drawn on paper, and from the picture a rough sketch is produced. From this the master workman dictates the pattern, so many red threads, so many blue, and so on. The working weavers follow his dictation, and thus the pattern is evolved. This special training goes on from generation. The shawls are made in small pieces, which are eventually sewn together. The hand-made shawls, which do not touch the loom at all, are similarly made in pieces, which are joined together afterwards. The best kind of woollen fabric is known as pashmina.

Carpets are manufactured in Kashmir. Those who are intererested in this branch of industry should visit the extensive factories of Messrs. Hadow and Co., and those of M. Duvereigne.

Cherub-like children bathing, laughing and playing, the mothers fetching water and the khisties plying up and down the stream, make a lively picture.