The flora, which is most interesting, has yet (as far as I know) to be treated independently of the neighbouring regions. Royle is scientific but antiquated, and I know of no better list than that given by Lawrence in his Valley of Kashmir.
APPENDIX IV
It may interest any one intending a trip to Kashmir to see a note of reasonable expenses as incurred by two people during a nine-month absence from England. Therefore I append a précis of ours.
It is to be remembered that a saving might be effected in many particulars by any one knowing something of the country. We had to buy our experience. Fully £10 or £12 could be saved in wages, as at first we had a fighting tail like “Ta Phairson” of “four-and-twenty men and five-and-thirty pipers”—and pipers have to be paid! We also hired tents when we did not really require them. Against these outgoings, however, it should be borne in mind that, thanks to the kindness of friends, we paid a merely nominal rent for a “State” hut at Gulmarg. At Abbotabad, Jaipur, and Udaipur, also, we had no hotel bills to meet.
PRÉCIS OF EXPENSES—TWO PERSONS
LONDON TO KARACHI (25 Days)
£ s. d. £ s. d.
Half-Return fares, 1st class, London to Trieste,
and thence by Austrian Lloyd (unaccelerated) 60 0 0
Hotels, sleeping-car, gratuities, wine bills, &c. 16 15 0
Baggage expenses 8 15 7
————— 85 10 7
BOMBAY TO LONDON (25 Days)
Share of fares 60 0 0
Hotel expenses and sundries, as before 10 6 8
Baggage expenses, dock dues, &c. 17 11 4
————— 87 18 0
KARACHI TO SRINAGAR (16 Days)