102 AFOOT THROUGH THE 



The weather became oppressively hot as the 

 hours wore on, and vast herds of ponies were continu- 

 ally passing me on their way up to the higher pasturage. 

 Pony-breeding is a great industry in Kashmir, and there 

 is a constant demand for them in large quantities for 

 the distant journeys to Gilgit and Leh. Numbers are 

 bred on the shores of the Wular, where the rich marsh 

 grasses afford good food, but these have a tendency to 

 become soft-footed, and the village ponies of the Sind 

 and Lidar valleys are preferred by the native dealers, 

 markbans, who collect and sell them. His Highness 

 the Maharajah owns many herds, as well as horses of 

 larger breeds. Only lately the Government has had to 

 thank this prince for his generous offer of mounts for 

 our army in South Africa. Personally, though quite 

 pleased that the country should possess so many ponies, 

 I would have preferred that special paths should have 

 been made for them. With rocks on one side, and the 

 river hemming one in on the other, it is not easy to pass 

 some hundreds of kicking, bucking, squealing little gees, 

 who have apparently no idea of manners saving the 

 hopping over any obstacle that presents itself, and as 

 their keepers " galawans " they are called are seldom 

 immediately in attendance but are straying behind, 

 gossiping and smoking, some skill and more agility 

 has to be exercised to prevent being stamped out and 

 left to fertilise the soil. I found the bank broken away 

 at the same place as when I had passed up the valley, 

 and at first no means of crossing the " tumultuous deep " 

 presented itself, but an old coolie wandering by 

 suggested his broad shoulders as a good mount, and so 

 I clambered up, and therefore, hardly as steady as my 

 salt-laden tat, who had borne me over the first time, 



