A NARROW TRACK 63 



gallery some 5 feet off to my left. There was not 

 exactly a precipice under me, but a slip would have 

 involved a drop of some 10 or 12 feet on to a sharply 

 shelving rock, down which the victim of the catastrophe 

 would have proceeded, unpleasantly fast, till he went over 

 its edge, and fell, a couple of hundred feet or so, either 

 into the Indus or on to the broken rocks beside the water. 

 I noticed this from where I stood, and then perceived a 

 ledge about 2 feet to my left, about 3 inches wide, 

 and on a level with the top rung of the ladder. Evi- 

 dently this was the stepping-place to the gallery beyond, 

 and using it as such, I got across in safety, but I had 

 never seen a "road" attenuated to a width of 3 

 inches before. Some distance further there was a rise 

 by a zigzag of about 1000 feet, to cross a precipitous 

 spur, and then, after a stretch comparatively level, a 

 sudden descent of quite 1500 feet to the edge of the 

 Indus. This was a sharp drop down ladders and almost 

 perpendicular rocks, and involved using the hands almost 

 as much as the feet. 



Here at the village of Bagicha we changed coolies, and 

 then had about the severest ascent of the whole journey, 

 for we must have gone up quite 2000 feet, and had to 

 do it under a blazing sun. The cold wind from the 

 snows around and above us tempered the heat somewhat, 

 but the climb was very severe. 



That evening we arrived opposite Rondu, which lies 

 on the left bank of the Indus, and having to go there for 

 fresh supplies and to arrange for a change of coolies, we 

 crossed by the rope bridge. The track takes the traveller 

 to some precipitous rocks overlooking the Indus, down 



