LEH TO YARKAND 23 



At Panamik we were delayed for a couple of days 

 waiting for grain to be collected. We wanted forty 

 maunds (one maund = 8o Ibs.), and so we did not 

 reach Changlung till July 2ist. This hamlet con- 

 sists of two or three houses, with a few willow-trees 

 and a small patch of corn. There are one or two 

 other villages farther up the Nubra Valley, but this 

 is the last inhabited place on the Yarkand road till 

 Shahdula is reached. 



At that time the road from Changlung went over 

 the Karawal Dawan, 5,000 feet of very steep hill, 

 with a vile track up it. To avoid this a road was 

 being made up the Talambuti Valley, but was not 

 yet finished. Thus far we were accompanied by 

 Captain Kennion, the British Joint Commissioner, 

 who came up to see the road and to hasten the 

 completion of this part of it. His predecessor, 

 Captain (now Major) Trench, did a great deal for 

 the road up to Leh, and it is now very different 

 from what it was in 1893, when I first travelled 

 over it. 



About Tutyalak there are a lot of burhel (Ovis 

 nakura) ; we saw some from our camp, but as 

 they were a long way up the hill, and we could 

 not make out any rams among them, we left them 

 alone. 



Mergistan is an elevated and chilly spot just at 

 the foot of the glacier, and it blew very hard the 

 night we camped there. The Saser (17,500 feet) is 



