east, reared its crown of ice and snow more imposingly than ever, and without a speck of cloud or mist. To the north mighty peaks, also above 25,000 feet in height, frown down upon the valley, while eastwards I could see the range along which my onward route was to lead. The two days which I had saved by the double marches between Gilgit and Hunza, were used for a short halt at Aliabad. I required it in order to distribute my baggage into loads suitable for coolie transport, and also to dispose of arrears of correspondence, &c. Hunza, it is true, does not boast as yet of a post-office. But a " Political Dak " connects it every second day with Gilgit, and in view of the long journey before me it seemed right to utilise to the full this last link of regular postal communication.
The first morning brought the Mir's Wazir, who came to assure me of the arrangements that had been made for the onward journey. Wazir Humayun is no small personage in the Hunza State, being the chief adviser and executive officer of the Mir, which rank he holds by hereditary right. He is a tall, well-built man of about fifty years, with an imposing beard, and makes a striking appearance, even in the semi-European costume he has chosen to adopt, evidently as a mark of his progressive ideas. It must have been different in former years, when the Wazir led Kanjuti raids into Sarikol, Gilgit, and Baltistan. A pleasant fire lit up his eyes as he talked to me of his expeditions to Tashkurghan and into the Braldo Valley. Now that the days of fighting are gone he evidently does his best to develop the internal resources. It is no easy task, for the cultivable land is far too limited to provide for the increase of population. Only by elaborate irrigation can produce . be wrung from the rock-strewn slopes of the valley, and the long courses of ` kuls ' (water-channels) winding along the foot of the mountains often in double and treble tiers, show how carefully the available supply of water from the glacier-fed streams of the side valleys has been utilised.
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