IN THE HIMALAYAS 83 



remains of our dinner, from being swept away by 

 these tremendous gusts. The boatmen gave no 

 practical help whatever, but, in a panic, sat and 

 recited loud prayers at the top of their voices. 



This violent wind raged for, perhaps, fifteen 

 minutes and then dropped as suddenly as it had 

 started. The cook boat had been blown from its 

 moorings and was tied up again a long way off, and 

 the cook sent word that the pudding had gone over- 

 board, so had his fire and the remaining sticks were 

 so drenched with spray he was not able to light them, 

 and there would be no more dinner ! My wet rugs 

 were at last brought back by a man on the shore 

 where they had been blown. 



We travelled up the Jhelum river in boats and 

 then started on our march. 



At one place on the road we were crossing, by a 

 small wooden bridge, a stream that overflowed its 

 banks; both ends of the bridge were flooded and 

 rather difficult of access. Our baggage ponies did 

 not like the look of it, but most of them, after some 

 urging, got over safely. One pony who refused to 

 go was pushed through the water up to the bridge, 

 went too near the edge, put his foot in a hole and 

 fell into the stream. He scrambled to his legs over 

 rough boulders, fell over into the water again and 

 swam across with his load. He tried his best to 

 get his footing, but on landing he fell again and his 

 load slipped, four guns, all the cartridges, the tiffin 

 basket and Ned's bedding all disappearing under 

 the water. It took some time to fish the things out, 

 and we opened the guns and cartridges at once to 



