A PILGRIMAGE TO AMERNATH 



537 



Photograph by A. Hodgson 



THE NARROW DECILE THAT LEADS TO THE SIND VALLEY 



Although summer has gone, snow-fields still cling to the precipitous slopes and barefoot 

 pilgrims find the path a severe test of their faith. 



it were, for the next camping place 

 would be our last before reaching Amer- 

 nath. Another frightfully steep hill had 

 to be climbed, over such a mass of rocks 

 and loose stones that for some distance 

 the path was quite undefined. A stream 

 trickled and then tumbled down the 

 height. Our path zigzagged up almost 

 perpendicularly, wound over another 

 spur, and then round and round a barren 

 rocky hilltop, covered in spots with juni- 

 per. We were above the tree-line now, 

 and continued so for two and a half days. 

 To our right rushed the river, in a suc- 

 cession of rapids, and farther along we 

 saw two tiny lakes, the upper emptying 

 into the lower. Above both lay Lake 

 Shisha Nag, a beautiful sheet of water 

 about one-third of a mile in diameter. 

 The color is of a dark green with a pe- 

 culiar bluish tinge, sometimes seen in 

 glacier-fed pools of great depth. The 



water sparkled like diamonds in the sun- 

 light. m 



Shisha Nag is surrounded on three 

 sides by an amphitheater of limestone 

 rock seamed by watercourses and rising 

 almost sheer from the surface of the lake. 

 When we saw it the tops of three of the 

 peaks were covered with snow. Earlier 

 in the season the snow extends down the 

 steep slopes and ends in ice cliffs, which 

 break off and float on the water like 

 miniature icebergs. The lake is covered 

 with ice until June. 



The climb from Shisha Nag was over 

 a snow-bridge through a sort of meadow, 

 where there were remains of fireplaces 

 and trenches for tents — no doubt a pil- 

 grim camp. It was inclosed by an amphi- 

 theater of mountains. 



On our right the long moraine slopes 

 were capped by horizontal strata of solid 

 rocks, from which jagged minaret-like 



