346 Narrative of the Travels of Khwajah Ahmud Shah. [No. 4, 



there is a great deal of snow ; the road is blocked up for some three 

 months. 



From Ladakh to Lamakeet is five days journey. A stream com- 

 ing down from the direction of Ladakh and known as the Shahyeak, 

 flows past the latter place ; this was fordable. Lamakeet is merely 

 a halting-place, it contains a few huts. 



From Lamakeet to Ak Musjid is thirty marches. The country is 

 totally uninhabited. The Kurra Koorum mountains have to be 

 crossed on the road. There are two roads, known as the Mary- 

 han and Ekdan ; the former is the summer road. There are three 

 kothuls on this line. The tract between the Kurra Koorum range 

 and Lamakeet, a distance of three days' journey, is called Dubsun, 

 which, during winter, is blocked up with snow, rendering this 

 road impassable. The Ekdan (snow) or winter road was, accord- 

 ing to the people of those parts, blocked up for twenty-two years, 

 and water accumulating above it, caused the snow at last to give way 

 and they say that this was the cause of the great flood of the Indus 

 in 1840\ This is the route almost always now followed by the 

 hufilahs, and is two marches shorter than the other. 



I witnessed a curious phenomenon on this road ; the snow while 

 melting did so at some distance from the ground leaving masses 

 in the shape of large trees, from which hung icicles, and between 

 which the traveller moved along ; and it seemed as if you were in the 

 midst of a sea of crystal, from which innumerable colours were 

 reflected, and moreover, on the top of the snow were large rocks 

 and stones of a red and white colour. We have to pass through this 

 sort of country for half a day's journey. The Kurra Koorum is a 

 small mountain, but when a wind which is known as the sootuk, 

 blows, the air becomes very rarified, and breathing becomes difficult. 

 During the spring the north winds prevail and there are very heavy 

 falls of snow, which frequently oblige hufilahs to return from 

 whence they came. The sootuh frequently causes the death of 

 horses ; if an animal dies on the road and there is no spare one 

 for his load, it is buried and left there until its owner can go back 

 and bring another from Ladakh. From the Kurra Koorum to the 

 Akhtab mountains a journey of three days, there is no water on the 

 road, and frequently when bad arrangements have been made and 



