50 SPORT IN THE HIGHLANDS OF KASHMIR chap. 



went calmly on, as indifferent to the danger of his sur- 

 roundings as if he had been moving over an extensive 

 plain. Mrs. Renton's courage was astonishing. It was 

 only when the path became less than 3 feet wide, and 

 steeper than a staircase, and was made up entirely of 

 loose blocks, with perhaps a high rock to the left and a 

 sheer drop of several hundred feet to the right, that she 

 would consent to get down. 



The villages we passed that day were, like nearly all 

 in these valleys, entirely isolated from each other. Each 

 consists of a cluster of flat-roofed houses, with terraced 

 cultivation ^ as far as the water on which the village 

 depends can be got to go. The terraces, to make them^ 

 level, are built up with stones at the lower end, the wall 

 thus formed supporting the earth. Looked at from the 

 opposite side of the valley they present a most curious 

 appearance, as the built-up edges are alone visible, and 

 would cause any one, unacquainted with the facts, to sup- 

 pose that the hamlets consisted of nothing but stone walls. 



The water is obtained from a ravine, sometimes lying 

 close to, sometimes, as at Hardas, many miles away. 

 The irrigation system on which that village depends 

 derives its water from a ravine about 4 miles off. The 

 stream is conveyed over the terraces by a network of 

 pretty little canals, clear as crystal, running in channels 

 with gravelly beds, and intersected here and there with 

 tiny waterfalls. Apparently the only limit to the ex- 

 tension of cultivation is the supply of the precious fluid 

 that may be available. All through these Himalayan 

 valleys, in Baltistan as well as in Ladak, the principle 



^ See illuslration of Himmi village, p. 361. 



