114 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



ground, the hardness of the seat, and the offensive- 

 ness of the dust, one is generally more dead than 

 alive at the end of a day. 



Our first day was not so bad, for we covered only 

 sixty-four miles, passing the night at the pleasing 

 little Dak Bungalow at Kohalla, where a good din- 

 ner was served by the khitmagar, and bedsteads 

 supplied for one to throw one's blankets on. But on 

 the second day the number of miles accomplished 

 was ninety-one, which meant almost continuous 

 travelling from five in the morning till ten at night, 

 and it was two weary sahibs who threw themselves 

 down that night on their blankets at Baramulla. 



But what a revelation awaited us in the morning. 

 Ye gods, but it was worth all the heat and the dust 

 and the tired bones a thousand times over for one 

 glimpse and one smell of it. At our backs was the 

 rugged mountain pass through which we had come 

 in the night, and before us a beautiful green plain, 

 as smooth and fresh as any lawn, stretched from 

 both banks of the winding Jhelum River far away 

 for miles and miles to the base of snow-mountains, 

 which in a panorama of dazzling whiteness formed 

 a majestic setting to this splendid picture. It seemed 

 almost too good to be true, this wonderful transition 

 from the burning dust-laden air of Calcutta to this 

 clear, crisp, soul-filling atmosphere. We revelled in 



