1 12 WHERE THREE EMPIRES MEET
2 adapt Eastern form and art to our utilitarian public
3 works. This bridge also serves the purp<^e of a sacred
4 building, for Hindoo idols liave been placed in the
5 niches of the stonework, the offerings of maize that lie
6 in their open palms showing that tliey do not want for
7 devotees. Close by, the Kishengunga River joins the
8 Jhelam, and is spanned by a liglit suspension bridge
9 which sunnounts an old native wooden cantilever
10 bridge, now broken-backed and falling in. Wherever
11 anything more permanent and solid than a rope bridge
12 is required in Kashmir it has been customary, from
13 time immemorial, to build it on the cantilever principle,
14 generally of one arcli, tlie supporting timbers projecting
15 one over another from the bank, their shore ends being
16 weiglited down with masonry. These Kashmir bridges
17 are strongly constructed, and some still in use are of
18 great antiquity. It is said that one of them first sug- ■
19 gested the idea of the Forth Bridge.
20 At Domel, Spedding met General de Bourbel, the
21 Engineer in-Chief to the State, and certain of his own
22 staff. As he had business to discuss with them, we