XIII BY BOAT TO MAN A SB A L 219 



home was not near Bandipur. I was glad to get rid of 

 these four. They were a lazy lot, and I could easily 

 have done without them all through. The real work of 

 the camp — the cutting of wood and fetching of water 

 and cleaning of vessels — had been always done by the 

 Baltis or other temporary coolies, and the loads of these 

 Kashmiris had been gradually reduced day by day, till 

 when we got ponies they practically carried nothing at all. 



Then I went on board the boat, whereupon the boat- 

 men, who were also Kashmiris, began to raise difficulties, 

 Manasbal, I knew, was only about six hours by water from 

 Bandipur, but the men said they could not get there till 

 4 P.M. the following evening. I insisted on starting at 

 once, and they said it was dangerous to cross in the 

 dark the arm of the Wular Lake that had to be tra- 

 versed. I knew there was a substratum of truth in this, 

 and so consented to wait till the moon rose. But I 

 was obliged to engage four more boatmen, and had, of 

 course, to agree to pay them at double the right rate. 

 Mahamdu cooked a few chupatties and heated a tin 

 of army rations for my dinner ; but the result of all 

 the worry and trouble caused by the Kashmiris was that 

 I did not dine till close on eleven o'clock. 



There were several horns and skins which were to be 

 sent on to Srinagar, also the 80-lb. tent, socks for grass 

 shoes, and other things not required in Ladak. These I 

 had put into separate loads some days before, and now 

 handed over to the boatmen to be conveyed to Srinagar, 

 to which place they were going after dropping me at 

 Manasbal. The horns and skins were to go to the skin- 

 man I employed, and the other articles to Bahar Shah. 



