The Few Travellers We Met During Our March Were Flat Nosed,
Heavy-Looking Creatures, With Chinese Skull-Caps And Pig-Tails,
And Were Employed In Conveying Salt To Cashmere, Packed In Bags Of
Woven Hair, And Laden On Cows And Asses As Weird And Strange-Looking
As Their Owners.
About five kos off, we called a halt for breakfast,
and reached Tusgam about four P.M.
Here we found a few ARBOR VITAE, and other shrubs, in bad health,
the first of the tree species we had encountered since ascending
the glacier.
AUGUST 3. - Struck our camp at sunrise, and crossing the torrent,
which still accompanied us, descended the Pass by a slight
decline. During the day we passed through numerous gorges, studded
with giant masses of rock, and bounded on all sides by rugged and
inhospitable mountains. We only saw one village, and that some way
off the road - Kurroo, the guide called it. Breakfasted under an
overhanging rock on the mountain side, just where our path was, hemmed
in by the torrent, and were disturbed during our repast by several
volleys of stones which rattled down over us from above. They were set
free by the melting of some large masses of snow, which, being covered
with sticks and dirt, we had not noticed when we chose our breakfast
parlour so close to their uncomfortable proximity. To-day we met
more salt-carrying parties - uncouth-looking savages in pig-tails,
speaking a language that not one of our party could understand.
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