too much for him. I am very glad I did not bring my horse with me; I was
strongly advised to do so, but I am afraid advice has not much weight
with me; in this instance anyhow, my own opinion has proved the best.
All the men I meet coming back have horses with them, but they are
nearly all shoeless, lame and sick, and have not been ridden for weeks.


JULY 11th.--Marched on Hultian, distant seventeen miles. Much better
road than yesterday, but many ups and downs and short rough bits.
Started two hours before sunrise, by the light of the moon. The road
soon reached the right bank of the Jhelum and continued the whole
distance alongside of that river. It is a rapid river apparently not so
deep and often not so wide as the Kishun-gunga, its bed strewn with huge
boulders over which the water breaks in great waves of foam. It runs in
a narrow rocky channel the precipitous sides of which are a great
height. How many ages must it have taken to cut this channel in the
solid rock? The valley is bounded by high hills, very narrow, the road
so bare of trees, that the latter half of the march became hot and
wearying, so I had recourse to the dandy for four or five miles. But it
was rare gymnastic exercise as swinging from my pole I had to dodge the
great stones on either side of me and keep a sharp look out to avoid
hard bumps. My dog was again very much fatigued. His tail is a good
token of his state, for when fresh it is stiff along his back, and
gradually drops as he goes along until he is quite exhausted, when it
hangs straight down. Stopped at a Barahduree (not so good a one as the
last) a few feet above the Jhelum in which I bathed. There is a rope
bridge opposite, a much older one than the other I crossed, but not more
than half as long, and not high above the water, some of the ropes are
broken, and it seems very shaky. However, I must cross it to-morrow and
get into the Murree road, which runs parallel to this one, on the other