THE SARSAL FORT 79 



available. Luckily the rain did not come through the 

 tent, so I was comfortable enough. 



The 15th was a lovely day, clear, cool, and sunny, 

 so I sat on a stone, leaning up against a poplar, and 

 wrote letters most of the time. On the mulberry-tree 

 above my tent the fruit had fully formed, and some of 

 it had even begun to ripen. The apricots had shed 

 most of their blossom, the poplars were in full leaf, 

 and the corn was in some places two feet high. Close 

 to my tent was a structure which I was told was the 

 Fort, and I examined it with much interest. It was 

 built of water-worn stones, loosely set in mud, on a knoll 

 of rock overhanging the Indus. It was a curious 

 misnomer calling it a fort, seeing that its walls could be 

 pushed down with the hand, but it looked picturesque 

 on its elevated position, and was used, I was informed, 

 for storing grain. 



On the afternoon of the i6th my things arrived, and 

 I was glad to see them and the cook again. There 

 had been difficulty, Ramzana said, in getting coolies, 

 hence the delay. 



The 17th I also spent at Sarsal rearranging my 

 things, for Abdulla recommended crossing the river 

 and going up the Burme ridge just opposite, to look for 

 a markhor, before trying Khaltar and the nalas on the 

 right bank of the Indus. Khaltar was a much higher 

 and colder nala than Jutyal, he said, and the snow would 

 for a while longer be too deep. The Cabul tent he 

 proposed to leave behind, with everything else which 

 could possibly be spared, as the ascent was steep and 

 the going bad. There being no water anywhere on 



