II THE SONAMERG GORGE 25 



which had been occupied by the lady and her husband, 

 the snow outside having prevented them from pitching 

 their tents. It was a miserable, dirty hole, to which 

 access was gained through a sloppy courtyard and up a 

 broken-down set of steps. 



The road crosses the river to the left bank before 

 reaching Rezin, and crosses back a short distance further 

 up. A couple of miles beyond the latter bridge we got 

 regularly on to snow, and from that time until we arrived 

 close to Tashgam on the 2nd of April, we were never off 

 it, and never able to pitch a tent. The discomfort of this 

 part of the journey was greater than I had imagined, not 

 on account of the travelling, though that was bad enough, 

 but mainly on account of the unpleasant quarters that 

 had to be occupied each night. 



About the point where we struck the snow on the 

 path the traveller enters what is, in summer, the loveliest 

 part of the Sind valley. This is the celebrated Sona- 

 merg Gorge, between Gagangair and Shitkuri, where 

 the river rushes through a comparatively narrow and 

 winding channel, sometimes between walls of rock, some- 

 times between slopes of tree-clothed hill. That evening, 

 however, the aspect of the Gorge was anything but 

 summer-like, as we wound our way along the sloppy 

 and muddy track, at one moment high above the foam- 

 ing river, at another down at its edge, for before us 

 were trees laden with snow, and huge masses of ice and 

 ddbris which had slipped down from the hillsides above. 

 The ghastly desolation of the whole scene, the roaring 

 river, the avalanches, the broken trees lying with their 

 roots turned up, the big mountains on either hand 



