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 SPRING IN A SIDE-VALLEY VW

violets, anemones, and cuckoo flowers. The air was tich with the scent of the fruit trees. Swarms of bees were humming around them ; butterflies— tortoise-shell, clouded yellow, and cabbage-white— fluttered in the sunshine ; and the lively twittering of birds—bulbuls, goldfinches, wagtails, and tits— gave yet one further evidence of the awakening spring.

Each spot in Kashmir one is inclined to think the most beautiful of all—perhaps because each in some particular excels the rest. Certainly Harwan has many fascinations of its own. Rising sheer behind was a mountain crowned with dark precipices overhung by heavy clouds through which pierced the snowy summit. Cheery crystal streams sparkled down the valley. In the middle distance lay the placid Dal I.ake—on the far side overhung by the Hari Parbat fort. The main valley was interspersed with village clumps of fresh willow foliage, clouds of pink and white fruit blossom, and majestic chenars just springing into leaf. In the far distance lay the snowy ranges of the Pir Panjal, the Kaj Nag, and Khagan; and facing round again to the north rose the striking Mahadeo peak—rocky, bold and precipitous, and

pine-clad nearly to the summit a