Kashmir 167 



so were we "ever delicately treading through most 

 pellucid air." All idea of distance was most curiously 

 lost by the atmospheric effect, and mountains eighty 

 miles away might actually be taken for hillocks forty 

 yards off, and vice versd. It was extraordinary. 



Time was getting on, and with regret we had to 

 turn our backs upon Ladak, and set our faces once 

 more towards the valley of Kashmir. Thousands of 

 feet beneath us lay the green slopes of Sonamerg, 

 dotted with cattle : there were deodar forests, black 

 and gloomy, bounding waterfalls and tranquil pools ; 

 it was indeed " a glorious upper world," in which 

 one found more than one had ever dared hope for. 



We were tempted to camp longer at Sonamerg and 

 explore some of the mountains ; but had not sufficient 

 time. Colonel and Mrs. M. and two friends of theirs 

 were doing exactly what we should have done, near 

 Haramuk ; and a short account of one of their days, 

 told me by Mrs. M., of an expedition up a peak, 

 illustrates another of the resources of Kashmir. 



The little mountaineering party consisted of two 

 men and two women. Three of them had climbed 

 more or less in the Alps, and one of their servants, 

 a Ghoorka, " Chowry " by name, was almost equal to 

 a guide. 



" We had two tents carried up to the south-east of 

 Haramuk, to the west of the Sind Valley, and pitched 

 about nine thousand feet high on a barren but sheltered 

 little plateau before a steep cliff. A couple of natives 

 cooked for us, and another two kept going backwards 



