In Advance Again, Other Mountain
Ranges Rose Behind Each Other, Clothed On Their Southern Faces With
Delicate Grass Up To The Point Where The Snow Lay Lightly On Their
Rocky Top-Knots And Hid Itself Among The Clouds.
From the bridge,
a rustic structure of entire pine-trees, we passed through an upper
valley carpeted with the brightest soft green pasturage, until we
reached the usual little cluster of dilapidated wooden tenements
which constitute a village in these mountains.
This was Soonamurg,
and crossing another bridge, formed of two single giant pines, we
came to a halt and pitched our camp close to a huge bank of snow on
the river's brink. What with our halt, and the badness of the path,
we did not arrive until five P.M., and as the sun set, the spray from
our snowy neighbour began to wrap its chilling influence about us,
and we were glad enough to invest ourselves in some thick cashmere
wraps of native manufacture, which we had hitherto considered merely
as standbyes in case of extraordinary cold on mountain tops.
According to general report, however, we only reach THE FOOT OF THE
MOUNTAINS to-morrow. This sounds well, considering that we have been
ascending steadily for three days, and have left huge avalanches of
snow beneath us, not to mention the mountains which we traversed on the
Peer Punjal side before even entering the Valley of Cashmere at all.
At Soonamurg, where we had been warned that there were no supplies,
we found large herds of sheep and goats.
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