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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books
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| 0077 |
Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan : vol.1 |
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For afternoon tea my hosts took me to a pretty 'Marg'
on the top of the ridge above their camp. From this height
the Indus Valley, in its barrenness of rock and sand, could be
seen descending far away towards Chilas and Darel. The
day will come when this natural route to the Indian plains
will be open again as it was in old times. Then the last bit
of terra incognita along the Indus, which now extends from
Chilas down to Amb, will be accessible, while the diffi-
culties inseparable from a line of transport crossing the great
barriers of the Kashmir ranges will no longer have to be
faced.
On the morning of the 10th of June I took leave of my kind
hosts and hurried down towards Bunji to catch up my camp.
As I descended the defile of the Astor River, where the road
leads along precipitous cliffs and past shingly ravines, the
heat rose in a marked degree. I could well realise what the
terrors of this part of the route, known as Hatu Pir, abso-
lutely waterless and exposed to the full force of the sun, must
have been for the Kashmiri coolies of old days. On the
eleven miles which brought me down to the level of the
Indus close to the point where the Astor River joins it, I
did not meet with a single traveller. Equally desolate was
the ride from Ramghat, where the road crosses the Astor
River, to Bunji, some eight miles higher up on the Indus.
The broad rocky plain which stretches from the bank of the
great river to the foot of the mountains showed scarcely a
trace of vegetation. The radiation of the sun's rays was
intense, and I was glad to reach by one p.m. the shelter of
the Bunji Bungalow. The neighbouring fort is still held by
some detachments of Kashmir troops, though the ferry over
the Indus which it once guarded has become disused since the
construction of the new road. During the hot hours I spent
at Bunji there was little to tempt me outside. A hazy
atmosphere hung over the valley and deprived me of the
hoped-for view of Nangaparbat, which, rising fully 22,000
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582
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