BARREN MOUNTAINS 103 



of the engirdling mountains always in the back- 

 ground. 



But when we emerge from this delightful valley 

 of the Sind River and cross the Zoji-la Pass, we 

 come upon a very different style of country — bare, 

 dreary, desolate, monotonous, uninteresting. The 

 forest has all disappeared, for the rainfall is here 

 slight. The moisture-laden clouds have precipi- 

 tated themselves upon the seaward-facing slopes of 

 the mountains we have already passed through. 

 And because of this lack of rainfall the valleys are 

 not cut out deep, but are high and broad. It is 

 a delightful experience to pass from this brown, 

 depressing landscape to the rich beauties of the Sind 

 Valley and Kashmir. But to make the journey 

 the other way round, and to pass into the gloomy 

 region after being spoilt by the luxuries of Kashmir, 

 is sadly disheartening at first. 



The experience has, however, its advantages, 

 for it makes us throw off all ideas of soft ease we 

 may have harboured in Kashmir, and reminds us 

 that we have to prepare ourselves to face beauties 

 of a far sterner kind. So we insensibly alter our 

 whole attitude of mind, and as we plod our way 

 through the mountains we summon up from within 

 ourselves all the austerer stuff of which we are 

 made. 



We cross some easy passes of 13,000 feet or so 

 in height. We cross the River Indus. We reach 

 Leh. We cross a 17,000-feet pass and then a 

 glacier pass of 18,000 feet, and then the watershed 

 of India and Central Asia by the Karakoram Pass, 

 nearly 19,000 feet in height. We are six hundred 



