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0079 Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan : vol.1
Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan : vol.1 / Page 79 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000234
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CHAP. II.]   AT THE GILGIT AGENCY   27

the morning a desolate spot by the sandy bank of the river, enclosed by an amphitheatre of bare reddish-brown mountains.

The scenery remained the same for the next nine miles or so until after rounding one of the countless spurs along which the

road winds the open part of the great Gilgit Valley came into view. Minaur is the first village where cultivated ground is again reached, and thereafter every alluvial fan on the left.

bank was green with carefully terraced and irrigated fields. A. few miles further on the valley of the Hunza River opens from the north, and beyond it stretches the collection of

hamlets to which the name Gilgit properly applies. It was a

cheerful sight to view this expanse of fertile fields and orchards from the height of an old moraine issuing from a side valley.

While riding through it I was met by a note from Captain H. Burden, i.M.s., the Agency Surgeon, offering me that hospitable reception for which Captain Manners Smith's kindness had prepared me.

I soon was installed in a comfortable set of rooms, and realised that for my stay at Gilgit I was to be the guest of the

officers remaining at the headquarters of the Agency. Small as their number was I found among them most attractive and congenial company. Each of them, whether in charge of the Kashmir Imperial Service troops supplying the local garrisons, or of the Commissariat, the Public Works, or the hospitals of Gilgit, showed plainly that he knew and liked these hills. For each the semi-independence secured by the arrangements of

an out-lying frontier tract under " political " management had been a source of increased activity and consequent experience

in his own sphere. That the political interests which

necessitated the garrisoning of Gilgit with Imperial officers and troops have benefited this region in more. ways than one

was apparent from a stroll through the little " station." I found there a• well-built hospital, neat offices for the various departments of the administration, a clean and airy bazar, and even substantial buildings for a school and a zenana