483 
1862.] Notes of a trip from Simla to the Spiti Valley . 
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 lb. 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 short 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- 
saliir, 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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