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. We
also encountered an original-looking gold-washing association of
five, who were wending their way towards the snow with their wooden
implements. They were all also weighted with bags of grain, to keep
them alive during their search. Their labour consists in sifting
the fine sand which comes down in the snow-torrents, charged with
minute particles of gold; and the proceeds, from the appearance of
"the trade," would not seem to be very great. They say it amounts
only to a few annas a day, but would probably not allow to the full
amount for fear of being taxed.
At our breakfast-halt we saw the most primitive specimen of a smoking
apparatus probably ever invented. It consisted of a dab of mud stuck
in a hole of a tree, about five feet from the ground. Two small sticks,
inserted in this from above and below and then withdrawn, had evidently
served to form the smoke passage; while the bowl as evidently had
been fashioned by the simple impression of a Thibetian thumb, the
whole forming, for the use of needy travellers, as permanent and
satisfactory a public pipe as could well have been devised. It had
just been in requisition before we passed, for a small quantity of
newly-burned tobacco lay in the bowl; and a fresh patch of clay on
the mouthpiece had probably been added, either in the way of general
repairs or by some extra-fastidious traveller, who preferred having
a private mouthpiece of his own. After rather a severe march through
rocky mountain gorges, we reached Chungun, a little oasis of about
five acres of standing barley, with three or four flat-roofed houses
dotted about it in the usual Tartar style of architecture. It also
boasted four poplar-trees, standing in a stiff and reserved little
row, evidently in proud consciousness of their family importance
among such rugged, treeless, iron mountains.
It was altogether a refreshing little spot for a halt, after the
savage scenery we had marched through; and pitching our camp in it,
we were not long in introducing ourselves to the little brawling
stream of clear cold water to which it owed its existence.
AUGUST 4. - Started this morning in a mountain mist. Just outside
the village we passed the scene of the fall of an avalanche, which
gave one some faint idea of the enormous forces occasionally at work
among these mountains. It had taken a small village in its path, and
over the place where it had stood we now took our way, among a perfect
chaos of masses of rock, and uptorn earth, trees, &c. The whole ground
was torn and rent, as by the eruption of volcanoes or the explosion
of enormous magazines of powder. Passing this, our path continued
to descend the gorge until about two kos from Chungun, when another
torrent came down to join its forces to the one we were accompanying;
and leaving our old companion to roar its way down to join the Indus,
we proceeded up the valley in the society of our new friend. Passing a
series of little villages nestled among the rugged rocks, we crossed
the stream by a tree bridge and causeway, to the Fort of Kurgil,
where, after a long consultation, we breakfasted. The differences
of opinion between the guide and the rest of the natives as to the
distance of a village ahead, where milk and supplies were forthcoming,
were so wide, some saying three kos, others six, &c., that we finally
determined upon getting some breakfast before deciding the true
distance for ourselves. The village Hundas was another most perfect
little oasis. It was only about five or six acres in extent, under
the frowning mountain, and was terraced and planted in the neatest
and most economical way imaginable. The fields were beautifully clean,
and were quaintly adorned in many instances by huge blocks of rock from
the mountain above, bigger considerably than the whole of the houses
of the village put together. Leaving Kurgil, we made a sharp ascent,
and crossed a plateau bounded by some extremely curious formations
of rock and sandstone.
The mountains appeared to have been reared on end and cut with a knife,
as if for the especial benefit of geologists in general, although the
hues of their many-coloured strata were calculated to attract even
the most ungeological mind by their brightness. Descending from this
plateau, we came to a pass dotted with three or four little villages,
wooded with poplars, and adorned with a few shrubs of different
kinds. Here every available inch of ground which the grudging rocks
bestowed was cultivated, although all around, the mud-built native huts
were broken down and deserted, in such numbers as to give the idea
of an Irish settlement whose inhabitants had transplanted themselves
to America. At the last of these little villages, called Pushkoom,
we pitched our camp, the retainers taking a fancy to the place from
the promise it gave of abundant supplies.
AUGUST 5. - Made our first day's halt, and enjoyed it considerably
- not the least of its advantages being the immunity it gave us
from being torn out of bed at grey hours in the morning. The rest
of the force also appreciated the day of rest, and made themselves
comfortable after their fashion under our grove of trees.
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