A SUMMER IN HIGH ASIA. 



and twenty-five feet between perpendiculars. The photo- 

 graphs give little idea of the pace and volume of the 

 water, which were the chief causes of the difficulties. 

 The importance of the work to the Central Asian trade 

 was evinced by the fact that every merchant delayed at 

 Chalaskat worked without remuneration, as a coolie, many 

 of these merchants being men of very considerable wealth 

 and position. The smaller bridges caused little delay, 

 the new structure over the Indus having fortunately 

 withstood the flood. I therefore reached Leh on August 

 3rd. Here I heard that the rafts on the Shyok at Sati, 

 on the north of Leh, had been washed down the river and 

 wrecked, and that the caravans, which had arrived on the 

 right bank, were blocked there. The planks, ordered the 

 previous year, were therefore hurried over the Khardang 

 Pass, and on August ill was in camp by the side of the 

 Shyok river. The Ladakh diaries of that and succeeding 

 days will show that on the I3th one of the rafts was 

 moving, and that my camp had moved up to the 

 Karawul Dawan and Sasser passes to restore broken 

 communication there, and that I was in camp till August 

 2/th. By this time the Khardang Pass and valley, the 

 Shyok rafts and road, the Nubra Valley, and Karawul 

 Dawan and Sasser passes had been put into a passable 

 condition for regular pack traffic, and all danger to the 

 through traffic was over. 



During these moves I paid for all transport at full 

 rates as far as my personal camp and baggage were 

 concerned, only Durbar engineering stores and material 

 being carried at cheap rates, in agreement with the 

 villagers, whose income from the transport of the trade 

 absolutely depended on the re-opening of the road, and 

 who gave some months work practically gratis. For the 

 camp at the Sooroo Colonel Barr allowed ten days 

 halting allowance to my office establishment on the 

 understanding that I would not ask for it myself. This 



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