The total population of the valley, excluding that of any of the surrounding countries, and the inhabitants of the mountains is 402,700.

This number is divided thus:–
1.Sunnees, or Mussulmans as they call themselves,312,700
2.Sheeas, sect of Mussulmans,15,000
3.Hindoos,75,000
Total population,402,700
Population of Srinagar:–
1.Sunnees,95,400
2.Sheeas,7,000
3.Hindoos,25,000
Total population of Srinagar,127,400

In Kashmir there are 29,430 shawl weavers.

"The clothing of the Kashmiris, both men and women, consists essentially of one long loose woollen garment, which extends from the neck to the ankles, and is not very unlike a woollen night-gown. So far as this article of clothing is concerned, men and women are dressed exactly alike. The men, however, frequently wear a kamarband round their waists when they have a journey to make, or some piece of work to perform which requires more or less of activity. The sleeves of the garment being wide and capacious, the wearer can with the greatest facility take his or her arms out of them, and place them alongside the body, in immediate contact with the bare skin....

"The houses of the Kashmiris are not at all calculated to afford efficient shelter to their occupants against the inclemency of the weather in winter, being for the most part built of wood, and being besides generally in the most rickety and tumble-down condition imaginable. So far as the writer is aware, they are entirely destitute of fireplaces, and when a fire is kindled inside one of them, the smoke must find a way of escape, either by the door or the window, which is never of glass, but, as a rule, of trellis work, which is often very pretty, and for which Kashmir is justly famous.

"Coal being unknown in the valley, wood is the material generally employed as fuel. The very poorest of the people, however, collect in the summer and autumn the ordure of cattle, which they mix with straw and then form into round cakes, which they dry in the sun's rays and carefully preserve against the coming winter....

"The Kashmiris being extremely poor and inactive, and the climate at different seasons of the year being unpleasantly and bitterly cold, the inhabitants of the Fair Valley are in the habit of carrying about with them, wherever they go, earthenware pots, which they have denominated kangris. These kangris or portable braziers are made of clay of varying fineness, and are usually covered with wicker-work, more or less ornamented according to the price of the article. Men and women, young and old, rich and poor, Hindoo and Mussulman, all have their kangri, and all consider it indispensable in the cold season. The fuel consumed in the kangri is charcoal, and the heat evolved is often considerable....

"When the weather is extremely cold, it is customary for both men and women, while walking about out of doors, to carry the kangri under their loose woollen gowns, and in close proximity with the bare skin, the effect of which is often to produce a kind of cancer on those parts of the body most frequently subjected to this kind of irritation."

In the "Christian Intelligencer" for March 1871, there is an anonymous paper of much beauty and power from which the following particulars are gleaned:–"Let me speak first of the beauties and excellencies of the valley, and let me afterwards tell why, notwithstanding all these, Kashmir has left a sad picture on my mind. First–The country itself. Where, taking it as a whole, is anything more beautiful? I do not mean to say, that after all one has heard of it, there is not a shade of disappointment as one enters the valley by the Murree route; for it is not until you are fairly in the midst of the valley that you appreciate its beauty. To say that it is like an emerald set in silver, is to give but the faintest idea of the exquisite beauty of that bright green plain, with its broad stream, the Jhelum, running through it, and encircled on every side by snow-capped hills. Beautiful as a whole, it is far more so in its details. Its great swelling quiet river rippling down from one end to the other; its glittering lakes overshadowed by giant rocks of every shape and shade; its grand groves of chinar (the grandest tree I have ever seen, its colouring so full of contrast, its shade so perfect, its size almost incredible); its orchards of fragrant fruit; its numberless mountain streams and rushing brooks (for it is indeed a land of fountains and streams of water); its quaint picturesque villages, with their houses almost like the fanciful Dutch houses of our children's toys; its massive ruins carrying one back into another world, and about which the English visitor is almost inclined to endorse the superstition of the natives,–that they were not built by men, but by some race of giants who lodged those great stones in the places from which man has never been able to remove them,–all these make its beauty as varied as striking; such a variety as perhaps is seen nowhere else in the world. And then, whichever way you branch out from the central valley up its smaller vales, there is still the same or even greater beauty. Rushing rivers with snow cold water flinging themselves over rocks and stones; little villages hid under the shade of towering walnut trees; and, as you get further up, peaks reaching up to heaven, glaciers, from under which bellow forth dark dazzling streams. Or, if we climb the hills round the valley, we come upon beautiful murgs, as they are called, plains on the tops of hills, covered with wild flowers, among which you may wade above your knees and in ten minutes gather such a variety, as your two hands cannot clasp,–forget-me-not, Canterbury bells, buttercups, columbine, and a hundred other dear old English friends,–while round the edge of these bright green meadows rise up the dark green deodars. Or we go up bleaker hills, and come upon great mountain lakes (tarns we should call them in Yorkshire), so cold, so solitary, so awing.

"But there are other things in Kashmir to please besides the scenery. The people are certainly a peculiarly fine race. The men strong and handsome, capable of carrying with ease a maund, or even more, for fifteen miles over steep difficult hills, with such sturdy limbs as contrast almost ridiculously with the long thin tight-trousered legs of the Sikh soldiery. They really are, too, a most ingenious and clever and tasteful people. This is evident not merely from their exquisite shawls, but from the good taste of their papier-maché, and silver work, and jewellery, so far superior, not merely in execution, but in design and taste, to that of their Hindustanee neighbours. The women, perhaps, owe most of the fame of their beauty to their contrast with the expressionless faces of Hindustanee women; but still no one can go into Kashmir without seeing some few faces that strike him as very fine, not merely from the fresh colour and animated expression, but from the real excellency of the features. The climate, too, is unquestionably very delightful.... I doubt whether an English summer is, on the whole, so equable and pleasant....