206 Sport and Life in the Further Himalaya 



tion. Most of them land, however, one side or 

 the other, in the space of a mile or two gene- 

 rally, strange to say, none the worse. Next comes 

 the Khardong Pass, 17,000 feet, for which (their 

 own animals being used up) yaks are generally 

 hired ; and so our party of traders arrive at Leh, 

 455 miles from their starting point. Here they 

 leave their animals to fatten up and by then, 

 poor beasts, they need it for the return journey. 

 The road on to Kashmir is another 250 miles, 

 in which one severe and two minor passes have 

 to be crossed. Thence some ten days with 

 wheeled transport takes them to the rail-head, 

 and in two or three more days they arrive at 

 the port which is the goal of their journey. 

 Then, purchases hurriedly completed, back they 

 have to toil before the passes get blocked by 

 snow. I often wondered what the City man, 

 accustomed to his saloon carriage to London 

 Bridge or King's Cross, would say to such a 

 journey on business ! 



The string of ponies toiling painfully along 

 below us was one of these returning caravans. 

 I had met the traders the day before at my 

 camp, and they had expressed their thanks to 

 the high "Sarkar" for the improvements to the 

 trade road and the new ferry - boat, in which 

 they had had a good passage across the Shyok. 



