214 SPORT IN THE HIGHLANDS OF KASHMIR chap. 



Ramzana picking up loads, while I drove the herd of 

 ponies. 



The distance to the top was about a quarter of a mile. 

 A rough stone shanty stood, we found, on the summit, which 

 is 10,740 feet above the sea. Judging by the odour that 

 greeted me on peering into one of the rooms, it must 

 have contained a dead bullock or pony, I did not stay to 

 ascertain which. But I learned later that this was not 

 so. The smell proceeded from skins, which had been 

 taken off the pack animals lost in the great blizzard the 

 year before, and which had been put there to dry. A few 

 coolies were cooking on the floor of another room, which 

 was littered with the remains of fire and other ddbris. 



Around the building all my loads were collected by 

 5 A.M., and then the business of taking them down the 

 opposite side began. As we heard from men coming up 

 the southern side, that the snow was harder and not so 

 deep there as on the northern, the ponies were laden, 

 though but lightly, the men taking loads as well. As 

 everything could not be carried at once, I stayed behind 

 and spent a cold couple of hours waiting, till some of the 

 men returned from their two-mile tramp to the nearest 

 bit of road free from snow. Then I went down with 

 them and the balance of the things to this spot, and here 

 the ponies were fully loaded up once more. 



About a mile below the summit, and on the southern 

 side, I noticed a curious structure — a sort of shelter — for 

 use when deep snow covered the ground. It consisted 

 of a tiny wooden house — apparently with one room — 

 erected on large piles. The floor I took to be over 25 

 feet above the ground. A ladder gave access to the door. 



