Our Hearts Being Expanded By This Administration Of Justice,
We Proceeded To A Further Act Of Charity, And Emancipated Our
Twelve
ducks from their basket, into a temporary pond constructed for them
by the bhistie, where they dabbled about to
Their hearts' content,
and soon forgot the sorrows of the road in a repast of meal and rice.
JULY 28. - Marched at six A.M., and after proceeding about a kos
found that we were in for a regular wetting. Our path lay through a
beautifully wooded ravine with precipitous mountain peaks appearing
ahead in every direction: these, however, were soon shrouded in
impenetrable mist, which gradually gathered in about us, and proceeded
to inspect us in a most searching and uncomfortable way.
The road however, though beautiful, was by no means a good one, and it
was in many places difficult work to keep one's feet in the wet slush,
over wooden bridges, or along the side of a dashing torrent which kept
us company, and which seemed to be labouring just now under an unusual
degree of temporary excitement, in consequence of having had too
much to drink. We had arranged to breakfast on the road, but the rain
made us push on, and on reaching the vicinity of our halting-place,
we stopped to inspect the condition of our garments, and to satisfy
ourselves as to our future prospects in the matter of dry changes of
raiment. On opening our small reserve, of which the mate had charge,
I found that sad havoc had been made in the precious articles we had
been so hopefully depending upon for comfort and consolation at the
end of our soaking march. The last efforts of our generally rather
useless dhobie had been brought to bear upon our present equipment. The
massive brass smoothing-iron and its owner had alike done their best
to start us creditably in life with the only clean linen we were
likely to behold for many weeks, and now nothing remained of the
first instalment of these spotless results, but a wringing mass of
wet and dirty linen. The sun, however, coming out opportunely to our
assistance, we made the best of our misfortune by spreading out our
small wardrobe to the greatest advantage in its rays. Our guide, who
by the way appeared to know nothing whatever about the path, proceeded
to unroll his turban, and divesting himself of his other garments,
took to waving his entire drapery to and fro in the breeze, with a
view to getting rid of the superfluous moisture. Leaving him to this
little amusement, in which he looked like a forlorn and shipwrecked
mariner making signals of distress, I repaired to a torrent close by,
and after a satisfactory bathe in the cold snow water, and very nearly
losing the whole of my personal property in the rushing stream, donned
the few dry articles I was possessed of, and proceeded to pick out
our camping ground. We fixed it among the scattered cottages of the
little village of Gundisursing, and while waiting for the main body,
stayed our appetites with the few apricots we managed to discover on
the already rather closely picked trees.
Got breakfast at two P.M. just as the rain began to come down upon us
again. The supplies procurable here were flour, milk, fowls, and eggs;
butter, however, was not forthcoming.
JULY 29. - Marched early after enjoying a drier night than I had
anticipated from the look of the evening and the fine-drawn condition
of our tent.
Our road continued up a beautifully wooded and watered valley, and
reaching a gorge in the mountains, about five kos from our start, we
halted at a log hut a little way beyond a wooden settlement dignified
by the name of Gugenigiera.
Here we had a bathe in the rushing snow torrent, a curious combination
of pain and pleasure, but the latter considerably predominating,
particularly when it was all over.
After breakfast we sent the coolies on again, intending to halt three
kos off; however, on reaching the ground, they unanimously requested
to be allowed to go on to the village of Soonamurg, the halting-place
shown on our route. It was altogether considerably over a Sabbath-day's
journey, being nine kos of a bad mountain-path; but as no supplies
whatever were procurable short of it, we held on our course. After
leaving our halt, the path led us close to the torrent's edge, and
the gorge narrowing very much, we were completely towered over in our
march by gigantic peaks of rock, blocks of which had come down from
their high estate at some remote period of their existence, and now
occupied equally prominent though humbler positions in the torrent's
bed below. Occasionally they presented themselves in our actual path,
and at one place we found that our course was blocked completely, the
inaccessible mountain side descending precipitously to the torrent,
and leaving us no option but to take to the water, roaring and boiling
as it was. Our guide went first with great deliberation and groping
his way with a stick, and after an ineffectual attempt to scale the
rock above, F. and I also unwillingly followed his example. The water
was piercingly cold as it swept against us, and the pain was so great
that we were glad to blunder over as quickly as possible, without
taking very much trouble about picking our steps. After passing
this in safety we came suddenly upon a band of hill-men with their
loads, from Thibet; they were the first natives we had encountered,
and wild and weird-looking savages they appeared as they congregated
about us, gibbering to each other in their astonishment at our sudden
appearance. With them, was a strange-looking bullock, with long black
mane and tail, and hind quarters like a horse, which they apparently
used for carrying their merchandize. To-day we passed the first snow
since leaving the valley, although in the distance there was plenty
of it to be seen.
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