CHAPTER V. 



THE town of Leh, or Ladakh, as the natives 

 call it, naming the chief town rather than the 

 district, has been so often dilated upon by other 

 pens, that anything more than a description of it 

 as it struck the writer would be superfluous. From 

 its position, at a point where three great roads 

 meet, it is bound to be a place of some importance, 

 at any rate, during the season that these roads 

 are open and the caravans arriving. Roughly 

 speaking, from the north comes the road from 

 Yarkand and Central Asia over the Karakoram 

 Pass ; from the east that from China and Thibet ; 

 and from the south those from India. I say those, 

 as there are two roads which are both much used, 

 the more easterly one that from Simla, which, 

 crossing the main range of the Himalaya by Spiti 

 and Lahoul, arrives by way of Rupshu ; and the 

 other, the well-known one, from Kashmir. In 

 the bazaar of Leh, therefore, during the summer, 

 you will find individuals of many nationalities who 

 have arrived, after months of travelling over lofty 

 passes and stony wastes, to exchange or sell their 



