FIRST APPEARANCE OF MAN 227
cave in the Lolab, near the borders of the Wular Lake, and seem to indicate the presence of man long anterior to the first dawn of Kashmir history. But the dawn of Kashmir history is only 2200 years ago, and man must have appeared 250,000 years before.that. For thousands of years he must have been bravely battling against Nature and against the numerous and powerful animals which then lorded over the earth. Slowly he must have made his way from the warm valleys of the Nerbudda and the Ganges to the rivers of the Punjab, and up the Jhelum valley into Kashmir. But he eventually established himself there as the beautiful lake was almost drained away and the Kashmir of the present day was finally evolved.
So we bring up the history of the mountains till it joins with the history of the people; and as the story closes, does not one great thought emerge—the thought of the recentness of man alongside the hoary mountains? During the one hundred million years of the mountains’ history mankind has existed only a quarter of a million; and his recorded history extends over not even a hundredth part of a single million years. And if we reflect on this, and consider, too, that the sun’s
