A SUMMER IN HIGH ASIA. 



look-out for the cannonade of stones that came 

 rattling clown from above.* 



After a somewhat toilsome progression along the 

 narrow path, we reached the village of Hardas, 

 where we were to halt, just as it was getting dark. 

 What attracted my attention here was the road to 

 Leh, winding along the apparently vertical preci- 

 pice, and along which I was destined to wend 

 my homeward way some five months later. The 

 following day our march took us to a village called 

 " Olting-Thang " (seventeen miles), and I think that 

 perhaps of all the dull marches on the Dras and 

 Skardo road this is the dullest, as well as one of 

 the most arduous. For a few miles you follow the 

 Dras River till you arrive at the point where it is 

 joined by the stream from Sooroo which comes in 

 from the E. Near here I saw some disused pits 

 which the natives said had been dug to find gems 

 (probably sapphires). At this point you enter a 

 gorge running N.W., bounded on either side by 

 granite rocks. The road henceforward leads either 

 over steep slopes of stones that have fallen from the 

 crags above, and which vary in size from a pebble 

 to a railway-carriage, or else you are climbing over 

 precipitous ridges ("parris," as they are locally 

 termed), some thousands of feet high and falling 

 sheer to the river. These are usually crossed by 



* It was whilst photographing this watercourse from the opposite 

 side that Knight's camera came to grief. " Where Three Empires 

 Meet," Chap. VIII. 



29 



