ow" in that boat is quite the prettiest girl we have seen in Kashmir,
and the minx knows it!), but we had good men, and worked along slowly and
steadily up the main river, the side canals being all choked by broken
bridges and such like. We crept past the Amira Kadal, or first bridge,
about two o'clock, and tied up for lunch, revelling in the most perfect
pears, peaches, and walnuts. As a rule the Kashmir fruit is disappointing;
abundant and cheap certainly, but not by any means of first-rate quality.

Strawberries, cherries, apricots, melons, and grapes might all be far
better if properly cultivated, and scientifically improved from European
stock.

The pears alone defy criticism, and the apples, I am told, are excellent
also.

Vegetables are in great plenty, but, like the fruit, would be much
improved by good cultivation.

_Wednesday, September_ 25.--The abomination of desolation wrought by the
flood is borne in upon one more and more as an inspection of the town
reveals the damage done more fully--the houses standing empty, their lower
storeys dank and slimy, the ruined gardens, and muddy, slippery roads. The
wrecked garden of the Punjab Bank is one of the saddest sights, and must
be a painful spectacle to Mr. Harrison, whose joy it was to spend time and
money on importing exotic and improving indigenous plants.

One cannot help reflecting how desperately depressed Noah, and the
probably more impressionable Mrs. Noah, must have been when, discarding
their aquascutums for the first time, they sallied forth, a primeval party,
to observe the emerging country.

Mrs. Noah, tucking up the curious straight garment that is a memory of our
childhood, went ahead with feminine curiosity; Noah, bare-legged,
slithering along in the rear and beseeching the ladies to note the
slipperiness of the alluvial deposit, and for goodness' sake not to make a
glissade down the side of Ararat.

I feel confident they must have taken great precautions, for Sabz Ali
slipped up on the shelving bank of the Jhelum, and, had he not caught the
gunwale of our dounga in his descent, would most certainly have had to
swim for his life--which I doubt if he can do!

Now, Shem and Co. were as valuable to Noah as Sabz Ali is to us, and I
should not be surprised if he made them travel on all-fours in the risky
places. Fathers were very dictatorial in those days, and there was nobody
about to make them consider their dignity.

One can imagine the sce