IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
| |||||||||
|
| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Report of a Mission to Yarkund in 1873 : vol.1 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Citation Information
( 486 )
Four hundred mules have been generally employed on the Kulu road—they come from Kangra, Noorpiir, and Hushiarpiir. This season about 800 mules have come in.
There area great number of horses to be procured in Kashmir, but they are mostly too weak to carry loads over the high plateau of Tibet.
There are about 600 horses in Dras and Kirgil fit for carrying loads.
The horses of . Leh are particularly small and weak, there are about 250 in all through Ladakh.
The entire number of yaks fit for carriage in Ladakh is about 1,000.
Number of yaks in Nubra, Leh, &c., available for crossing the Sasair, Digar, and Khardong Passes: —
In Ladakh for carriage to Khardong and Digar ... 300
In Chimray for carriage over Sakti Pass ... ... ... 100
In Khardong and Digar for carriage of goods to Leh ... ... 100
In Nubra for carriage over Sasair Pass ... ... ... 120
The yaks in Nubra are very poor, and can hardly he used save in the months of August, September, and October.
Yaks as a rule cannot be used for more than a couple of marches—they get foot-sore.
One point has been clearly established by the safe passage of the late Mission, viz., that mule carriage is, of all others, the best for the work in question.
The sale of the mules which accompanied the Mission at Rawul Pindee will, it is hoped, operate favorably, and induce the mulemen of the Rawul Pindee district to come forward and undertake the journey.
The incorporation of the districts of Bras, Kargil, and Zanskar in the W azirat of Ladak would draw a certain number of good ponies from the Kashmir side into the trade, and would tend greatly to the advantage of merchants travelling through Kashmir by bringing the whole of the route on the far side of the Zogi La directly under the Ladakh authorities.
The question of employing Bactrian camels from the Yarkand side by way of the Changchemnoo has been much discussed.
The number of camels available, so far as I have been able to ascertain, are in-
l(argalik ... 100 camels.
Kogiar ... ... 50
Gunia ... ... 100 5!
With the wandering Papoo tribe—
(2 marches from Kogiar) ... ... 25 „
This tribe has besides some 100 horses and 200 bullocks available for traffic along the Kogiar route. Owing to the melting of the snow during the summer months, camels cannot leave Yarkand to cross the Karakorum till the end of August. The severe cold of the winter months is fatal to camels at extreme elevations, and a return from Ladakh to Yarkund during the same season would therefore be barely possible. It does not seem likely that camels can ever be used as through-carriage in the regular trade ; but now that the Kogiar route has been regularly opened, the old system under which camels were employed along roads from the Yarkand side, as far as the Karakorum only, is deserving of review.
Before Kunjut raids interfered with the traffic which existed during the Chinese occupation, it was customary for the carriers of Kogiar to engage to convey loads as far as the Karakorum only, where they were met by the carriers from Nubra and Ladakh who transported the loads to Leh. Camel forage is met with throughout the bed of the Yarkand river, i.e., as far as Kufelung. The distance from Kufelung to Brangsa Karakorum, 48 miles, can be performed in two days, while the Shyok is reached in two days more.
There is no known reason why camels should not make the journey to Kufelung along the bed of the Yarkand river : provided some arrangement could be made by which they could be relieved of their loads at Brangsa Karakorum, or even on reaching the Shyok river they might now be utilised. The carriers of Kogiar would enter keenly into the traffic if they were not called upon to make the through journey involving a long period of absence from home, and an extraordinary strain upon their cattle.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright (C) 2003-2019 National Institute of Informatics and The Toyo Bunko. All Rights Reserved.