KASHMIR AND THE HIMALAYAS IN MID-WINTER. 239 



to avail itself of the services of independent travellers 

 who are content to pay the greater portion of their 

 own expenses, and for whose personal safety it need 

 not hold itself responsible, which is a matter of more 

 importance. 



Even under these discouraging circumstances I 

 might still have visited the Pamir. Our admirable 

 Intelligence Department, whose headquarters are at 

 Simla, had it yet in their power, through the politeness 

 of the Chinese authorities, to offer me the requisite 

 passports, as well as one from our ally, the Amir, to 

 which they were prepared to add the gift of the neces- 

 sary presents to the native chiefs of the turbulent hill 

 tribes, if I would make an attempt to examine the 

 passes from Kashmir over the ranges of the Tsung 

 Ling and Hindu Koosh, leading, broadly speaking, 

 towards the basin of the Upper Oxus. 



Whether the advance of Eussia from this direction 

 in particular is to be feared or not, I am not disclosing 

 any secrets when I say that further information con- 

 cerning the mountain passes in Chitral, Wakkan, and 

 from Sar-i-Kol, and of the attitude and disposition of 

 the inhabitants of these parts towards the Eussians 

 and towards the English is urgently required, as also 

 of the region marked Kafristan on most maps, which 

 was suggested to me by Lord Napier of Magdala 

 shortly before leaving England, as a country of which 

 we know almost nothing. Nor is there any attempt 

 to conceal the fact, that the intended visit of the 

 Yiceroy to Kashmir about this time was in connection 



