HAPTER II. 

 SRINAGAR TO LEH 



THIS part of our route has been so often and so 

 well described before that I give no detailed 

 account of it here. It is 250 miles, and at the rate 

 of a stage a day takes fifteen days. Baggage 

 ponies may either be hired to go right through 

 from Srinagar or be exchanged on the way ; but if 

 many are required the first lot should be engaged to 

 go as far as Dras or K argil, after which fresh ones 

 can be got from day to day at most of the villages 

 stopped at. 



We took boats to Ganderbal, which is at the foot 

 of the Sind Valley, and ten miles from Srinagar by 

 road, and thence started marching on June loth, 

 1899. As we knew that we could not get over the 

 passes north of Leh till about the end of the first 

 week in July, we were in no hurry, and spun the 

 journey out to seventeen days by halting on the 

 way. Many attempts have been made to paint in 

 words the beauties of the Sind Valley, but it is 

 difficult to do justice to the panorama of mountains, 

 snow, glaciers, pine forests, and grassy slopes which 



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