244 TRAVELS IN THE EIGHTIES. 



applies for coolies, or for camels or baggage-horses, 

 as the case may be, to provide me with men to act as 

 porters. This route by Murree and by the valley of 

 the Jhelum Eiver into Kashmir is the only one avail- 

 able at this time of the year, and is never closed. 

 Next day the toilsome height to which we had as- 

 cended to reach Murree was all undone by a long and 

 gradual descent of twenty-two miles to the Jhelum, 

 which here flows partly opaque and exactly the colour 

 of jade or a greenish blue, between rocky walls which 

 expand into the bare, lofty sides of the encircling 

 mountains, partly terraced by cultivation, and dotted 

 here and there by the almost invisible mud houses of 

 the inhabitants. From the frost of Murree we seemed 

 to have returned to the warm plains of India, with its 

 genial sunshine. 



Here I made myself at home in the dak bungalow, 

 which was exactly like all other dak bungalows, with 

 its boards of dusty rules hung up " for the observance 

 by travellers using the bungalow," and its list of 

 prices to be paid to the khansama, or native in charge, 

 such as : Breakfast, with one side dish, one rupee ; 

 eggs, per dozen, two annas (twopence) ; and its bare 

 bedstead and bathroom, with hard mud floor. Here 

 is the village of Kohala, and the narrow iron bridge 

 for foot-passengers, which I crossed next morning, 

 following my seven coolies and Kassim Khan, and was 

 able to boast that I was at last in Kashmir. From this 

 point a good carriage road follows the left bank of the 

 river for a distance of about forty miles to Ghari, at so 



