136 



LADAK. 



We tramped on manfully, Subhan and I, the other 

 fellows riding with the moonshi in the rear, for some 

 three or four hours, when arriving at a thriving village 

 where we were to change coolies, not horses, I stopped to 

 breakfast, and on the arrival of attendants started afresh 

 about noon, it being cloudy and tolerably cool. I mounted 

 the moonshi's tattoo, a well-bred, nice looking mare ; and 

 oh ! the bother of regulating the stirrups, or trying to do 

 so, for I had to ride, after all, with one some eight or 

 nine inches longer than the other; and such a hard 

 scrimpy, little bit of a saddle I should have been better 

 off, had I walked the whole distance, long though it was, 

 I believe. 



Soon after leaving this village we passed through 

 another, and left a large cultivated valley on our right, 

 entering upon a track of rocky desolation. 



From the base of the mountains to the river's brink 

 was nothing but heaps of stones, apparently water- worn 

 stones, a very wilderness of stones ten thousand Londons 

 might have been paved from them, and they would not 

 have been missed. The mountains, big, brown, and ugly, 

 towered behind them ; the sun came out fiercely, the 

 saddle pinched, the stirrup leather galled, the little mare, 

 weary, fumbled drearily along through the loose stones, 

 and I did not altogether feel as though I liked it. 

 However, I was charitable to the poor little nag, and, 

 barring an occasional impatient jerk of the bridle and a 

 mild jog of the heel, took no steps to urge her to greater 

 exertions. So, on we slowly wended our weary way, 

 the country after a while improving, and again present- 

 ing verdant stretches of cultivation with the usual ac- 

 companiment of willow trees, and now, not unfrequently, 

 poplars, most of which, like Greenwich pensioners, had 

 lost a limb or two, or been otherwise maimed. Hedge- 



