156 A Sportswoman in India 



foot-bridges, and in which, consequently, the whole 

 of the transport is done either by coolies or mules. 

 A mule carries a hundred and sixty pounds, and can 

 manage two tents ; whereas it takes two coolies to 

 carry one. Coolies are four annas a march, ponies are 

 twelve ; consequently mules or ponies are cheaper and 

 also much quicker ; we hired them from the villages 

 whenever we could. Marches average from ten to 

 twelve miles a day. 



Next day we were off, with our caravan, consisting 

 of three eighty-pound tents, one of which was for 

 the servants ; leather kilters containing cooking-pots 

 and pans, tinned meats, soups, flour, raisins, biscuits, 

 cocoa, tea, jams, etc. ; a table, chairs, beds, tin bath, 

 gun-cases, cartridge-boxes, our own two trunks, 

 bedding, and etceteras, among which must not be 

 forgotten a kerosene oil-tin. Who has ever been 

 seen upon a march without one ? The track of the 

 Britisher across the East is marked by soda-water bottles 

 and kerosene oil-tins. Servants will pack your most 

 cherished possessions in these tins : they become 

 bread-pans, cake-boxes, all your hot water is boiled 

 in them, milk is kept in them, your trunks are 

 patched, your carts are mended, your rotting sheds 

 are roofed, all with pieces of this ubiquitous friend. 



Our object was to go up the Sind Valley to the Zoji 

 La Pass ; and two days' march round the Wular Lake 

 found us at Manasbal, near the mouth of the valley. 

 We left the "road to Gilgit " on our left, which 

 history has made so familiar ; the name alone conjures 



