Three Months of My Life | Page 8

not having had a drop of rain while marching. This morning
was cloudy till within a mile or two of Kuthin when the sun shone and
made the last ascent doubly trying. This is a very small village (at
Kunda there was only one hut) but there is a mud fort with bastions at
each corner but no guns. The walls are loop-holed for musketry, but
there does not seem to be any garrison. On making enquiries, I find
there is a garrison of seven men. It is getting dusk and mosquitoes are
coming out by hundreds, they have not annoyed me before, but I think I
must use my net to-night. I lie on my bed after dinner smoking with a
lighted candle by my side. A hornet flies in and settles on my hand,
then a large beetle comes with a buzz and a thud against me, making
me start. Sundry moths, small flies, and beetles, are playing innocently
round the flame. In half an hour I shall be able to make a fair
entomological collection but as I neither (Ha! I've killed the hornet)
desire them in my hat dead, nor in my bed alive, I must put out the light,
give up writing, and smoke in darkness.
JULY 14th.--To Shadera, twelve miles walked all the way. The road
worse than ever, and for the last mile actually dangerous, as it passed
along the edge of a deep precipice, and was only a foot wide and
considerably out of the horizontal, so that a single false step would
have been fatal. Road continued same character all the way along,
though much above the tortuous and noisy Jhelum, and its ups and
downs were the roughest, longest, and most trying, I have yet
experienced. I am pleased to know that the remaining two marches will
be, in the words of my Coolies over "uch'-cha rasta," a good road. It
remained cloudy and threatening the greater part of the way, and a little
rain fell, but eventually the sun shone, though great masses of "cumuli"
continue to hang about. This is a small village completely shut in by
three huge hills standing very close together. Between the sides of the
two in front, the summit of a fourth is visible, a magnificent towering
mountain, covered with a dense pine forest. I have not seen the snows
since I crossed the Doobbullee pass, as we have been ascending the
valley of the Jhelum ever since, and the view is confined by its lofty
sides. I have eaten my last loaf for breakfast this morning, and now one

of the greatest privations of the journey will begin. No bread, nothing
but flour and water made into a kind of pancake, which the natives call
"chepattie." I have not tasted fresh meat since I left Abbottabad, but
that one can do very well without. I live upon fowls, eggs, milk, butter
and rice, with a tongue or hump, cooked when necessary. Two or three
miles from Kuthai, we passed a very pretty waterfall. The slender
stream fell over a smooth perpendicular rock, of a rich brown colour,
100 feet high, like a thread of silver. Both sides of the gorge covered
with a variety of beautifully green trees, shrubs and ferns, altogether
constituting a delightful picture, the tints mingled so harmoniously, yet
with strong contrasts. Stopped at the Barahduree as usual, this one
surrounded with wild fig, plum, peach, pomegranate, and mulberry
trees. The mulberries only ripe, and like all wild fruit, small and
comparatively tasteless.
JULY 15th.--Started as soon as it was light for Gingle, fourteen miles
distant. Road greatly improved, hilly of course, but tolerably smooth so
that one could get on without clambering. About half way passed Dorie
on the left bank of the river, where there is another fort and a strong
rope bridge, it is one of the halts on the Murree road, farther on came to
an old ruin, four thick walls perforated by arches enclosing an open
square in the middle of two of the sides, large masses of masonry
formed archways or entrances. It is built of the rough stones and
boulders with which the surface of the ground is covered, yet the arches
are of very good shape. On the opposite bank of the Jhelum there are
forests of Deodar, but though they grow down to the waters edge, there
is not one on this side. (Larix Deodora, called by the Hindoos, "the God
Tree" is a stately pine, growing to a great height, and of a very gradual
and elegant taper. Its foliage is of the darkest green colour, and it gives
the mountains a very sombre appearance.) The hills have become much
more rugged and abrupt. I know of no single condition