FROM SABATHU TO KASHMIR. 37 



and a thundering salute from the artillery, pro- 

 claimed the final dispersion, and bade an appropriate 

 farewell to the army of the Satlaj." 



Writing to his dear friend, Mr F. A. Foster, on 

 March 30, Hodson describes his own experiences 

 of the long, hot, dusty march towards Umbala : 

 "Be it known to all stayers at home that writing 

 a letter is a very serious business, indeed, to 

 dwellers in tents ; for besides the usual interrup- 

 tions caused by duty and marching, and the more 

 public sort of existence one leads in camp, one is 

 exposed to every vicissitude of heat and cold and 

 wind, as if one were sitting under an umbrella 

 almost. I don't speak of the magnificent houses 

 of commanders-in-chief and governor-generals, but 

 of such small tents as befit subalterns, captains, 

 and Sir Charles Napier ! He is content with the 

 same accommodation as I am, but then he really 

 is a great man as well as a great soldier, not a 

 little one made big by fortune. . . . But the 

 dust ! No one who has not been in the sandy 

 plains of Upper India can conceive what a windy 

 day brings with it. I am wrong in calling it 

 sand; it is fine alluvial soil pulverised by the 

 heat so finely that it is impalpable to the touch, 

 lying ankle-deep for miles and miles of country. 

 You may guess how this rises with the tramp of 

 so many thousands of men and horses, and fills 

 the air so densely that one can hardly breathe, 

 and one's eyes become blinded with accumulated 

 filth, and the eyelashes thickened and clotted with 

 our mother earth. On a windy day this rushes 

 into one's tent and covers everything w^ith a 

 blanket of earth as efi"ectually as snow does the 



