Across the Roof of the World. 



Next morning I started the coolies off before daylight, and 

 left myself about an hour later. I'he way led through a 

 narrow valley, at that season of the year draped in snow 

 many feet in depth, its sides covered with the lofty pines which 

 constitute the principal feature in the landscape at these high 

 altitudes. 



Past Burzil Chauki, five miles beyond Minimerg, the road 

 assumes an ever-increasing gradient and the ravine becomes 

 wilder and more rugged until one nears the summit, when a 

 long stretch of down has to be crossed, swept by winds and 

 snowstorms during the winter with a fury nothing can resist. 



THE TELEGRAPH STATION AT MINIMERC; BURIED IN SNOW. 



The summit of the Burzil lies at an elevation of 13,500 feet, 

 and marks the border line between Kashmir, with its fertile 

 plains, and the more desolate and arid country of Astor and 

 Gilgit. The pass has ever possessed a sinister reputation for the 

 storms inseparably associated with it, and though it is quite 

 passable for men and animals in the summer, the passage of it 

 during the long winter months is an undertaking attended by 

 the gravest danger. Many lives have been lost in the crossing 



28 



