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.
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