XVI A LABORIOUS MARCH FROM SHEWL 279 



impossible to cross the Indus where that gorge opened on 

 it. The yakman who had brought us down the Shewl 

 valley now maintained that he had never said we could 

 cross where it joined the I ndus, and as our only interpreter 

 was Rupsang, whose knowledge of Hindustani w^as very 

 limited, it is very likely some mistake had been made. 



On further inquiry in the village, we found that we 

 could make our way into the Puga valley, which was the 

 way to the Nimu ford, without having to go back, and it 

 appeared probable that the Debring men had brought us 

 here, thinking that their yaks would be changed at Shewl, 

 whereas if we had gone down the ordinary route through 

 the Puga valley, their animals would have had to accom- 

 pany us as far as Nimu. This was Abdulla's explana- 

 tion, and it may have been correct. 



On the morning of the 6th w^e started with a guide 

 (who happened to be a Gurkha sepoy called Kashi Ram, 

 in the Maharajah's service, employed in looking after the 

 working of some sulphur mines he said), and moved 

 parallel to the Indus and across the line of ridges running 

 down to its valley. The result was that we had a good 

 deal of up and down, and the journey was more laborious 

 than the distance traversed, about 14 miles, would imply. 

 We crossed two main valleys, keeping as far as possible 

 along the tops, and went over no less than twenty-four 

 streams, mostly small. We arrived, about 4 p.m., at a 

 nomads' encampment in a valley not named on the map, 

 running down to the Indus opposite Chumathang, and 

 resolved to halt here for the nio^ht. 



When the yaks came up, we found that one had had 

 a fall when going up a bank after crossing one of the 



