LEH. 163 



spi>t. We were huddled up close together, which was 

 not satisfactory, and led to my having to enforce silence 

 after enduring the annoyance of much jabber passively, 

 long after I had retired to bed. 



20th July. We got away this morning at half-past 

 four, having a long and difficult march to accomplish. 

 About four miles of level sandy plain, passing some 

 Buddhist monuments of very great length, some three 

 or four hundred yards long, the extremities finished by 

 large urnlike masses of masonry on step-formed pedes- 

 tals, the sides of the latter ornamented with figures in 

 plaister many of these structures were met with during 

 the day, all being covered with the sculptured stones already 

 described to a large and flourishing village, that seen 

 from the distance yesterday, Mimah. We then 

 ascended through a ravine twisting and winding, 

 ploughing our way through heavy sand and grit three- 

 quarters of an hour's most tiresome labour when, reach- 

 ing the top, a more open, level country presented itself ; 

 which gradually widening opened out into extensive 

 plains of barren sand gradually dipping the Indus, and 

 what looked like a swampy country in the distance, with 

 many snow-capped mountains filling in the background. 



We passed a lama fort-like building perched on a hill 

 in the middle of cultivation., on the left, and a small vil- 

 lage, on the right (Piang) ; then descended to the very 

 brink of the Indus which here, instead of rushing 

 violently between high precipitous banks, meanders in 

 divided waters through an expanse of flat meadows 

 covered with grassy turf, a small village dotting the sur- 

 face here and there. An enormous bank, of miles in 

 length apparently, and one or two in breadth, slopes down 

 in one unbroken line from the mountains to the river's 

 brink on the other (the southern) side ; producing a 



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