KASHMIR AND THE HIMALAYAS IN MID-WINTER. 245 



uniform a gradient that a railway might be built upon 

 it as it stands. Hence to Oorie a short break occurs, 

 after which the road is completed the whole way to 

 Surinaggar, the capital. It being yet early in the 

 year, carriages or horses were not procurable, but 

 from the commencement of the season in April the 

 facilities offered by the new road will have completely 

 eclipsed the long and tiresome, if somewhat more wild 

 and picturesque, paths over the Pir Panjal and other 

 passes leading into Kashmir from India. 



Instead of following the road and the river, both of 

 which pursue a somewhat circuitous course, and make 

 a very acute bend at Domel, from west to south-east, 

 we turned in the afternoon and followed the broad bed 

 of a mountain torrent, at a place marked Faroora in the 

 maps of the trigonometrical survey, following the 

 example of the numberless coolies carrying packs of 

 merchandise between Surinaggar and Murree, whom 

 one meets staggering along for a mere pittance under 

 the most enormous and back-breaking loads of a hun- 

 dred to a hundred and fifty pounds in weight, bandy- 

 legged from years of such pack-carrying, and bearing 

 a wooden instrument, shaped like the letter T, upon 

 which every few yards they lean the weight of their 

 load, which they lower by straddling the legs wide 

 apart, until it rests upon the head of the instrument. 

 Like most short cuts, the wisdom of taking this one 

 was open to question, for it was, after all, but a rough 

 mountain track abounding in steep ascents and dread- 

 ful declivities. 



