250 AFOOT THROUGH THE 



so slippery nor so swinging as I had imagined, quite 

 robbing my small effort of the joy of accomplishing a 

 perilous adventure. Like many of the pleasures sought 

 after in this world, the joys of " dangers " are sadly 

 overrated, or at least they are generally remunerative 

 only in anticipation, or as a memory. At the moment 

 they prove either insipidly tame or err in the other 

 direction and are fatal, and then there is no gauge of 

 their pleasantness. Other species of bridge used across 

 the Jhelum are the " chika," a stout cable by which 

 people are slung across in a basket ; the sangha, a single 

 span, constructed somewhat on the cantilever principle, 

 and protected with strong abutments ; and the " targari," 

 a simple arrangement of two planks. 



An uneasy night, hot and fly-beridden, prepared me 

 to rise betimes with a thankful spirit that the dark 

 watches were over, and my last day of progress on 

 wheels I will not call it driving begun. It was a lovely 

 road, the attractions of which could not be wholly 

 destroyed by a blazing sun or aching head; but I have 

 written of it before, and it was in no whit changed in 

 its principal features, and by these I mean the roughness 

 of its ways and the grandeur of its guardian mountains. 

 The trees, however, had put on another mantle, 

 exchanging their jejeune tints for a richer green, and 

 the delicate hawthorns and daphnes of early spring had 

 been replaced by gaudy pomegranates and luscious- 

 scented jessamines. Many wild fruits, including straw- 

 berries, raspberries, small plums, apricots, and apples, 

 stocked these cool larders in the dark woods, while the 

 monkeys proved to us that the nuts were fast ripening 

 by throwing their shells at us. 



Life in the East assists a casual temperament and 



