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Two upper berths can be let down in case of a crowd. At the end of each compartment is a small toilet-room. It was unexpectedly chilly at night, and Twining and I were glad to roll ourselves up in as many rugs and "resais" as we could persuade the ladies to leave to us. A big deal case which we unpacked at Srinagar proved to contain a "life-sized" work-table.
A lady, however, should take out a short riding-skirt, or habit, and a side-saddle. A tweed suit of medium warmth for travelling, and a couple of flannel suits, will bring the wearer to Srinagar, where he can increase his stock at a ridiculously low price about 22 rupees or £1, 9s. 4d. per suit. Boots. Here, again, the wayfarer is at full liberty to please himself.
Opposite, through a maze of leafless trees, one caught occasional gleams of water where the winding reaches of the river flowed gently from the turquoise haze where lay the Wular Lake, and beyond clear and pale in the clear, crisp air shone a glorious range of snow mountains, stretching away past where we knew Srinagar must lie, to be lost in the distant haze where sky and mountain merged in the north-east.
Our two little chestnuts, which had brought us right through from Chakhoti to Srinagar a distance of about seventy-eight miles in two days, were as lively and fit as possible, and playfully nibbled at each other's noses as they were walked off to their well-earned rest.
Joyous anticipations filled our hearts as we neared central Kashmir, paradise land of lotus lakes, floating gardens, gaily canopied houseboats, the many-bridged Jhelum River, and flower-strewn pastures, all ringed round by the Himalayan majesty. Our approach to Srinagar was through an avenue of tall, welcoming trees. We engaged rooms at a double-storied inn overlooking the noble hills.
Some panthers approached our bivouac to answer the barking of Pamir, but dared not attack us. I had left Srinagar at the head of eleven carriers, four of whom had to carry so many boxes of wine, four others bore my travelling effects; one my weapons, another various utensils, and finally a last, who went errands or on reconnaissance.
The luggage arrived in Srinagar towards the end of the month. Sunday morning saw us again battling with a perfect coruscation of landslips; so "jumpy" was it in many places that we sat with the carriage doors ajar, in hopes that a timely dart out might enable us to evade a falling rock.
From Ismaïlabad, near the head of the valley, and fifty-four hundred feet above the level of the sea, the fall to Srinagar, thirty miles, is seventy-five feet; and from the capital to Lake Wúlar, twenty-four miles below, only fifty-five feet declivities in marked contrast with the fall of two thousand eight hundred feet in eighty miles from the edge of the plateau at Baramúla to the plain of the Panjab.
We thought of rooms in Nedou's Hotel, but our memories of this hostelry in Srinagar were not altogether sweet, and we did not in the least hanker after a second edition; moreover, every available room had been engaged long ago, and it was extremely doubtful, to say the least of it, if the good Mr. Nedou could do anything for us.
I take up my life where it ceased to be a mere suspense and became life once more. On the 15th of June, I found myself riding into Srinagar in Kashmir, through the pure tremulous green of the mighty poplars that hedge the road into the city.
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