THE JOURNEY INTO KASHMIR 127 



The coolies filed in at about three o'clock, and the 

 tents were quickly pitched. Ours was a large one, 

 with plenty of room for our two folding bedsteads 

 and two boxes between to serve as writing and 

 dinner tables. I had made out a written list of the 

 articles of clothing, etc., in each of the canvas bags, 

 and could thus lay my hand on anything in a mo- 

 ment, without having to search through and unpack 

 them continually. When one has so much stuff, this 

 is an excellent scheme. These bags were placed at 

 the foot of our beds, and racks made for the guns 

 underneath, so that everything was neat and or- 

 derly. My only other article of personal baggage, 

 besides the two canvas sacks, camera, and guns, 

 was a small square English box which served to keep 

 my diaries, films, letter-paper, and other things of 

 that kind, dry and clean. It loaded on a coolie's 

 back very nearly as well as the sacks, and from 

 start to finish of the trip I was delighted that I had 

 brought it. 



In the morning our trail led up the valley, still 

 following the course of the Sind River, now rocky 

 and turbulent, and of a beautiful opalescent color 

 from the snow and glacial streams which supplied it. 

 The middle of the day was excessively hot, a great 

 change from the frosty early morning air, but we 

 rested an hour for tiffin under a great chenar tree 



