184 TO THE SHAYAK. 



destination, placed as usual by a stream, and looking cool 

 and inviting with its fruit trees, and green crops, and 

 beautiful clear water. We were guided to a nice bit 

 of ground in a small orchard shaded by peach or apricot 

 trees, very large, and one fine walnut tree. I enjoyed 

 the comfort of the foliage after the three days without a 

 tree, and sat down to breakfast enjoying the ' dolce far 

 niente ' thoroughly after my exercise. We were three 

 hours and a half on the road without a halt ; so I suppose, 

 allowing for the ups and downs which were continual, 

 we must have come about ten miles. 



31st July. The morning being cloudy, and my tent 

 under the shade of the walnut tree, I did not notice the 

 first blush of dawn. We got off at a quarter to five. 

 A difficult climb immediately awaited me, the ascent 

 abrupt and the path deep in sand. Nevertheless I got 

 on famously, finding myself, both to-day and yesterday, 

 in excellent working order, and in good wind. I put 

 Mooktoo, still ailing, on the horse. After an hour's 

 travelling over a plateau intersected with deep ravines 

 we descended to the bed of the Shayak, along which the 

 path now led in a direction due west. A level waste of 

 sand had now to be crossed, its width occupying the valley 

 or river-bed, some three-quarters of a mile in width here ; 

 its length interminable as the river, perhaps, which here 

 was a rapid turbid stream of forty or fifty yards in width, 

 depth unknown. On the other side was a village in a 

 small spot of cultivation recovered from the surrounding 

 waste. There was a decided improvement in the scenery, 

 the mountains falling back as the valley extended, giving 

 good distances. Had the valley, or river-bed, been full 

 of water, when it would have had the appearance of an 

 extensive lake, the scene would have been magnificent. 

 But the flat waste of sand destroyed it. 



