1862.] Notes of a trip from Simla to tJie Sjnti Valley. 483 



of forty seers of flour for the rupee, but this is I consider a manifest 

 oppression, though many English gentlemen are not ashamed to avail 

 themselves of a despotic order to live cheaply. "When I visited 

 Kashmir in 1853, I sometimes had to contest with the native officials 

 about supplies, coolies, &c, but they generally concluded their own 

 demands by observing that I was their Hakim, and that the Mahara- 

 jah would slit their noses if I had any cause of complaint. In like 

 manner the headman of Korzo frankly declared, that if I chose to take 

 provisions by force I could do so, at my own rates, but that he could 

 not sell to me freely at a lower rate than one rupee for four and a 

 half seers. Other travellers I know got their flour here at one-third of 

 this rate, but I consider it neither just, dignified or politic, for English 

 gentlemen to travel through native states dictating their own rates, 

 and brow-beating the authorities in virtue of their being Englishmen. 

 On referring moreover to Cunningham's Ladak, I see he states six- 

 teen seers as the price of flour at Le in 1847, so that twelve seers is 

 not probably a greater advance in price than would naturally take 

 place in such a famine year as 1861, and not to be compared with 

 the rise in price in Hindustan. The staple supplies of flour, ghee, 

 salt and mutton are nearly every where procurable, but all other 

 articles of consumption, as sugar, tea, spices, rice, onions, &c, must 

 be taken from Simla in sufficient quantities for the trip, being rarely 

 procurable elsewhere. The following articles will also be found very 

 useful, either in case of actual short commons, or by way of change 

 from the everlasting mutton and chupatties, viz., preserved soup and 

 vegetables, spiced beef and sausages in 1 fb. tins, sardines, plain 

 biscuits, a small cheese, and some pigs' cheeks or pieces of bacon of 

 about 6 lbs. each, which last keeps well and will always be found useful. 



"Wine or spirits, though not requisite at low elevations, are greatly 

 needed in the higher ranges and plains of Ladak, and it is a real 

 hardship to run thort of them in tents, when the thermometer is at 

 or near 30°. For a three months' trip, however, not more than seven- 

 teen to eighteen coolies are requisite. I took but thirteen, one of 

 them taking a servant's tent, which is not requisite in Kulu or Bis- 

 sahir, but is absolutely necessary in the colder parts of northern 

 Kanawar and Ladak. 



A comfortable sleeping pal which can be carried by one man 

 (another taking the poles,) will be found most convenient, with a 



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