holder carries about with him on state occasions. It is a long staff with a small heart-shaped shovel of wood at the end, used for opening and damming up the irrigation courses that bring fertility to the laboriously cleared terrace lands.
Ghulmit cannot have seen many Sahibs, for a large assembly of villagers remained for a long time round the neat little fruit garden where I was encamped. Next morning we made a late start owing t6 a change of coolies, when time is always lost until every one settles down to the load he fancies. But the march to Pasu proved short, and after the previous days' experience unusually easy. This does not mean, of course, that the track is as yet fit for perambulators. For a short distance above Ghulmit the Ghulkin glacier comes down close to the river, and the numerous channels in which its ash-grey waters rush forth, are troublesome to cross at this season. But the valley is open, and the stony plateaus along the right riverbank afforded easy going. Just before the end of the march the road passes in front of the Pasu glacier, which comes down with its débris-covered masses of ice from a great peak of over 25,000 feet, also visible from Aliabad and
The little village of Pasu, situated immediately to the north of the glacier-head, formed with its green fields and orchards a pleasant contrast to the bleak scenery around. It owes its existence to the irrigation cuts which catch some of the water issuing from the glacier. A little orchard in the midst of the few scattered homesteads which form the village, was my cheerful camping-ground for the day. The cooler air and the backward state of the crops of oats and millet were indications of the elevation of the place (circ. 8,000 feet above the sea). The flowers by the side of the fields, scanty as they were, gave the whole a springlike look which was most pleasing.
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