Beyond the Pir Panjal; life among the mountains and valleys of Kashmir . es of smoother water, but witheddies and swirls which bear witness to its recent struggles. During the daytime the sun beats down into the IndusValley with pitiless vigour. The heat is intense and thelight dazzling—both being accentuated by refraction. Myfriend Geoffroy Millais and I shall not soon forget a twenty-five-mile march we made in this valley furnace! Occasionally, however, an oasis is found, a little villageconsisting of a few lines of poplar trees, some small greenpatches of cultivation, and flat-roofed houses
Beyond the Pir Panjal; life among the mountains and valleys of Kashmir . es of smoother water, but witheddies and swirls which bear witness to its recent struggles. During the daytime the sun beats down into the IndusValley with pitiless vigour. The heat is intense and thelight dazzling—both being accentuated by refraction. Myfriend Geoffroy Millais and I shall not soon forget a twenty-five-mile march we made in this valley furnace! Occasionally, however, an oasis is found, a little villageconsisting of a few lines of poplar trees, some small greenpatches of cultivation, and flat-roofed houses which aregrouped around a stream of pure water. This comes downfrom the mountains, and enables the inhabitants, with theaid of irrigation, to raise scanty crops of barley or buckwheat. Below its junction with the Shayok River the breadth ofthe Indus is considerable. About a mile above Skardothere is a ferry. The current here is very rapid. Theboat is a capacious old tub, roughly held together byiron clamps. In this our tents, medicines and otherbaggage are SKARDO AND MUSTAGH RANGE 205 Such boats are few and far between, and the crossinghas often to be effected on a raft of inflated sheepskins(see Frontispiece). Behind the cliffs across the river on theleft lies the valley of Shigar. The Indus emerges from adeep gorge to the right. The valley itself is occupied bythe river and the rounded boulders which form its else is a desert of fine white sand-drift. Close by, the Shay ok and Shigar rivers join the to its breadth the Shayok appears larger than theIndus. It has been calculated that the two together dis-charge more than 250,000 gallons per second. The valley of Skardo is situated to the west of the pointat which the rivers meet. The outstanding feature ofSkardo is a high rocky ridge, crowned by the ruins of a castle(Plate 42). Round the base of this, on the east side, thebroad and rapid Indus sweeps with a great curve. Thetown itself consists r
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectmountai, bookyear1912
