The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-01-25

his eye every climate. Every living
species is within close range. OF the
almost infinite products of the vege-
table kingdom every variety is at hand
This is a condition nowhere else to be
found on the habitable globe. It was
previously unknown to exist. The Vale
of Cashmere is a little world in itself.
It is even more prolific in species
than the outside world. The inveStiga-
lions into the extraordinary conditions
of this place have already produced re-
suits that have astOunded naturalists.
Many specimens are in the National
Museum at Washington; others are
scattered in other museums all over the
world.
The collection which has been sent to
washington includes ancient written
documents that antedate the dawn of
history, whose translation, coming as
they do from this spot where the race
originated, may yield startling infor-
nation. Besides this there are prehiS-
tOric ornaments, amulets, weapons,
queer vessels whose use IS mysterious
and uncertain, masks of a wierd and
striking oddly suggestive of idolatry,
and religious instruments used to-day
part of a superstition that was
hoary with age before Christianity was
born.
But most important of all among the
specimens which have been sent from
the far lands of Cashmere are those
that relate to natural history. There is
nothing ancient about these They are
thoroughly up to date, having come
from birds and animals recently killed.
And it is by this collection of natural
history specimens that it is known that
this strange land produces not only
species known to science, but others
that are absolutely new.
Here, where the human race origi-
mated, where animal life in its infinite
variety is believed to have been brought
into existence by the magic hand of the
Creator as part of the six days work
that made the world, living specimens
/ are found that appear never to have
strayed from this original site. One Of
the most singular creatures is cat of
a species that is absolutely new to sci
ence. The naturalistS at the National
/ Museum have thus far been unable to
| account for it. It does not seem to
/ come in anywhere in the elaborate cat
! schedules which science has thus far
arranged.
This cat is much larger than any cat
| hitherto known. It's legs are very thin
and its body very long. The body, as
1 is shown by the skin which accom-
panied the specimens is of a whitish
tint, f1ecked with brown spots, except
the head. The head of this singular cat
is striped
AS with cats, so with rats. Cashmere
| has produced a new specimen to puzzle
| men of science. Several specimens of
| these Cashmere rats are unlike any
| thing hitherto known. 1t has been sug-
! gested that the function of the peculiar
| queer, odd-shaped rat, which is ex-
hibited at the National Museum, and
| the naturalists do not doubt that there
| is some mysterious connection between
the two. If the strange rat had strayed
from the plateau of Cashmere to the
| outside world, it is believed the cat
would have followed it.
The civilized rat which we had pre-
viously known is no stranger to Cash
mere, and all known varieties of cats
are also found there. In the rabbit
family there are several skins now at
Washington that are believed to come
from species that is absolutely new
Here, then, are animals which science
has known nothing about, found in a
remote part of the Himalayas, where
all species were supposed to have origi-
mated, and whence they spread to all
parts of the earth. These are species
that never spread, but which have for
centuries on centuries remained at this
/ one small spot. Is not this. it has beer
asked, proof of the statement that al
varieties were created at the Garden OF
Eden, which existed at this identica
spot?
But even more curious and interest
ing than the natural history specimens
| in this collection are those that relate
to the people of this strange land, who
know nothing of the world, who actu-
world of their own, and who have {
rude civilization that was old when tht
pyramids were built in Egypt Among
the most valuable of these is a sacred
: book or Bible, written in strange
tongue, which an antiquarian and
scholar will now set about to decipher
The age of this book is unknown, but
coming from a people whose manner:
! ! and customs have never changed, FOL