Fourteen Thousand Feet High 187 



and proposed to catch me up at night. I set off there- 

 fore alone, on a tat, with our baggage mules behind, 

 at 8 a.m. Armudneera, who was our dak coolie, and 

 whom we sent periodically backwards and forwards 

 to our agents, Cockburn & Co., in Srinagar, with and 

 for our mails, walked on ahead showing the way. 

 The Lidder Valley was gradually opening out, and 

 throughout the day the Happy Valley itself grew nearer 

 and nearer, until at last we were fairly in it and down 

 in the flat once more. 



I rode off the path to see the ruins of Martund 

 Temple " the Temple of the Sun "one of the most 

 ancient buildings in Kashmir. It dates back two 

 hundred years before Christ. Its massive walls of 

 gaunt red granite, with their huge, trefoil-headed door- 

 ways and recesses, their high pediments and immense 

 fluted pillars, strike one as memorials likely to last as 

 long as Kashmir itself. The temple is in a fine position 

 on a natural terrace, commanding a splendid view of 

 the valley of the Jhelum. It was built in the Hindu 

 period, but like all the Kashmir ruins, differs a little in 

 architecture from the Indian Hindu. 



Three miles beyond Martund, and I arrived at 

 Islamabad, about 4.30 p.m. ; and walking down to the 

 river, found doonghas or kishties (house-boats) in plenty 

 from which to make a selection. 



That evening saw us started upon what, after 

 marching through the hot valley, was a delightful 

 change. Picture the laziest, sleepiest, sunniest time 

 in the world, on a great, broad, quiet river, in the 



