National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

GENERAL INFORMATION FOR THE TRAVELLER.   21

Ten t s. Although the traveller may repeatedly have occasion to use a native

• house, or part of it, as his temporary abode,' yet a tent is indispensable for him anywhere in the Himalaya. Its size depends almost entirely upon the traveller's intentions. Single-pole tents may be carried over nearly any pass and in any part of the mountains by travellers who wish for particular comfort, and make short stages 'only. It is easy to arrange a single-pole tent so that even a portable iron stove may be • put up in it without fear of doing any .injury—a contrivance which will add greatly to its comfort during bleak and stormy weather .2 But the use of such a heavy tent can only be recommended for an official stay, or to ladies and invalids; in general a much smaller tent giving sufficient shelter to the traveller. The kind used by us, and which we found to answer our purposes exceedingly well, was the following.' It was just high enough to allow of a man standing upright in it with his hat on, and large enough to contain a small folding-table, wash-hand-stand, bed,4 and a few trunks. In being put up, the tent required three poles, each of them consisting of two pieces; two spare pieces were always kept on hand. Though this con-

• trivance made the poles somewhat heavier (strong wood being necessary), it was possible by these means to pack them on horses, without any fear that a large projecting part would hurry the horse down a narrow path, in unexpectedly turning round a corner.

The tent could be opened on both sides—a contrivance which proved most beneficial, allowing of our throwing open whichever side was, for the time, turned away from the sun, and also promoting a continuous free circulation of fresh air.

A fly, to form a double roof, could also be attached to the upper part of our tent, and it proved an excellent protection against heat as well as against slight showers of rain.

' During a longer stay at any of the larger towns (Leh, Srinâgger, &c.) a native house will be found preferable to a tent. It is surprising how easily these houses can be converted into comfortable dwelling-places adapted to European wants.

2 We have seen a very nice arrangement of this kind in a tent belonging to Major Hay, the commissioner of Knlu.

3 These tents, as well as the larger ones used by us in India, were made at the well known and highly recommendable School of Industry at Jaipur in Central India.

4 A cot may be carried along most of the principal routes. A folding cot soon gets out of order.