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Our path lay over a finely-wooded hill, from which we had a full view of the Peer Punjal range, now divested considerably of the snows which lay upon it at the time we started for Thibet. Gradually descending into the valley proper, we soon found ourselves once more among the waving rice-fields and apple-orchards, while the wooden tenements again gave way to mud and stone, and thatched erections.
From the serai we can see, for the first time, the snowy range of the Himalayas, trending northwards, towards the Peer Punjal Pass, through which our route leads into the Valley of Cashmere. Another ride through hill and dale to "Rajaori," or "Rampore," a most picturesque-looking town, built in every possible style of architecture, and flanked at one extremity by a ruined castle.
Along the entire path there were running streams in every direction: and what with these and the magnificent sycamores and walnut-trees which shaded us as we walked, our opinions of the beauty of the country got a considerable rise. The path from the Peer Punjal Pass by which we entered appears to be the worst point of view from which to see the valley.
After an almost perpendicular ascent up natural flights of steps, we reached our next stage, Poshana a little mud-built, flat-roofed settlement on the mountain-side. Here we engaged a couple of "shikarees," or native sportsmen, and made preparations for a DETOUR into the snows of the Peer Punjal in search of game.
The pull-up took us about an hour and a half, and on reaching the summit, we found ourselves above the pass of the Peer Punjal, the rocky and snow-covered ranges of mountain around us gradually trending off on all sides, and losing themselves in pine-covered slopes, till they finally blended with the blue outlines of the ranges of Pills we had crossed on our route from Bimber.
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.
The emperor then appears to have entered the valley by the Peer Punjal Pass, and to have been received with every demonstration of joy by the people in whom he took such a fatherly interest. The loyalty of his children, however, was but short-lived, for about the year 1591 he again writes to Abdullah:
Crossing the Peer Punjal, some of the ladies of the Seraglio unfortunately paid the penalty of their too ardent desires to show themselves off to "a gallant and magnificent army," for "one of the elephants fell back upon him that was next, and he upon the next, and so on to the fifteenth, so that they did all tumble to the bottom of the precipice.
Found the hut at Poshana empty, and were glad to get into its shelter again. The rain seeming quite set in, we determined to discharge our shikarees, and after paying them three rupees each for their week's work, we sent them away perfectly happy, with a few copper caps and a good character apiece. Left Poshana at five A.M., and made for the Peer Punjal pass.
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