CHAPTER IX.

MY HIMALAYAN OUTFIT.

TENTS-LORD NAPIER'S TENT-FURNITURE-SUPPLIES ON THE WAY— GAME-NO EGGS-BALTISTAN APRICOTS-PRESERVED PROVISIONS -POTABLES-STIMULANTS UNNECESSARY-SERVANTS-MY ATTEN

DANTS-MEANS OF CARRIAGE.

I MUST hurry on, however, to the events of my own journey; but before treating of them it may be well, in order to make these events intelligible, to say something about what is necessary for travellers in the Himalaya. Journeying among these giant mountains is a somewhat serious business, and yet it is not so serious as it probably appears to those who have had no experience of it. In Switzerland, when essaying icy peaks and crossing snowy passes, we never get farther off than a day or two from some grand hotel, where all the comforts, and many of the luxuries, of civilisation are to be found; and even then considerable preparations have to be made for remaining two or three days beyond human habitations, and for sleeping in a cave or hollow of the rock. But for a journey like mine, in the inner and upper Himálaya, extending over months, the preparations which have to be made are of rather an alarming kind. House, furniture,

kitchen, cooking-pots, bed, bedding, a certain proportion of our food, and all our potables, except water, have to be carried with us, for the most of the way on the shoulders of men or women; and, in my case, the affair was complicated by my having to be carried also; for, at starting, I was unable to walk a hundred yards, or to mount a horse. Almost no bungalows were to be met with beyond the first fourteen marches up to Pangay; in a considerable portion of the country to be traversed the people will not allow Europeans to occupy their houses-and even if they did, motives of comfort and health would dictate a tent, except in very severe weather; for the houses are extremely dirty and ill-ventilated, and the mountaineers are covered with vermin. Of course, too, one is far more independent in a tent; and there is no comparison between the open camp, under trees, or the protection of some great rock, and a low-roofed, dark, unventilated, dirty room alive with insects.

A tent, then, is the first necessity to look after, and that matter is much simplified by the fact that, there being almost no level ground in the Himálaya, it is useless taking any tent but one of very small dimensions. The tremendous slopes and precipices of these mountains were not made for the large canvas houses which Indian officials carry about with them on the plains. I have travelled for a whole day before finding a piece of level ground the size of an ordinary drawing-room, and have had to pitch my tent in such a place, that two steps from my own door would have carried me over a precipice-a position evidently unsuited for somnambulists, and for travellers of a very convivial turn of mind. Fortunately, when I told

Lord Napier of Magdála of my intended journey, he said to me, “Have you got a tent yet? No. Then don't get one till you see the tent which I used in Abyssinia." This historical tent he kindly had pitched for me, and I got a fac-simile of it made in Simla at the exceedingly reasonable price of 70 rupees (about £7), my butler being a great hand at making bargains. It was made of American drill, with a double fly, which was invaluable for keeping off rain and heat. Its floor, and up to where the roof began to slope, at three feet from the ground, was about eleven feet by nine, and its extreme height between seven and eight feet. It was supported by two upright bamboos, and a bamboo across them fitting on iron spikes. Properly speaking it had no walls, but ropes attached to the outside of the inner fly, about three feet from the ground, gave it a perpendicular fall of that height. It had not a pyramidal, but a very blunt wedge-like form; and the cloth of both front and back opened completely from the top to the ground, or could be kept quite closed by means of small hooks, while in both back and front there was a small upper window with a flap to cover it. This habitation was so light that one man could carry it and the bamboos, while its iron pegs were not a sufficient load for one coolie ; and it was wonderfully roomy-more so than tents of much greater dimensions and of more imposing appearance. It was a convenience, as well as a source of safety, to be able to get in and out of it at both sides. without stooping down; and its coolness, and its use as a protection from the sun, were greatly enhanced by its allowing of either or both ends being thrown entirely open. I never fell in with any tent, except the

model on which it was made, to be compared with it for combined lightness and comfort, and I have seldom found so pleasant a habitation. It is necessary to have iron pegs for such a tent, owing to the nature of the ground and the scarcity of wood in the high mountains; and a double supply of bamboos should also be taken.

A good thick piece of carpet, about three and a half feet long by two and a half broad, is a great comfort, especially on snow. All gimcrack articles are utterly useless for the Himálaya, because everything gets knocked about in a fearful manner; and as a good night's rest is of the utmost importance, I got Messrs Cotton and Morris of Simla to make for me specially one of their travelling-cots which take to pieces. It was composed of two short and two long poles of strong wood, which went into sockets in four thick strong wooden legs. When this was set up, a piece of strong carpet was stretched over it tightly in a peculiar way, which I need not describe. My table, which could also be taken to pieces, weighed only a few pounds; and I took with me a light cane chair, which could always be mended with string, twigs, or something or other; but a folding Kashmír chair would have been much better. These things, with washing apparatus, a couple of resais or padded quilts, a plaid, and a waterproof sheet, were quite sufficient to start me in Himalayan life so far as my residence was concerned. Some travellers take portable iron stoves with them for their tents, but I rather think the heat thus obtained unfits one for bearing the cold to which we are necessarily exposed. My tent allowed of a fire being kindled close to the entrance, when wood could

be had, and I found it was only the damp cold of regions with plenty of wood that was injurious. For my servants I had a good rauti of thick lined cloth, which kept them quite comfortable; and I cut down their supply of cooking-pots and personal luggage as far as was at all compatible with their comfort and mine.

As regards provisions in the inner and higher Himálaya, the traveller will find that there are juniper-berries growing nearly as high as he is likely to camp, edible pines up to about 12,000 feet, and apricots nearly to 10,000. Wherever there are villages, milk, mutton, and coarse flour of various kinds are to be had; but that practically exhausts the list of Himálayan supplies, except for the sportsman; and, on a long journey, human stomachs desiderate a greater variety. The junipers are of immense size and powerful flavour; but most people prefer to have their junipers by way of Holland or Geneva. There is prime mutton to be had in all parts of the mountains, not to speak of shaggy sheep about the size of reindeer; but the acute hillmen are by no means fond of parting with it, and are apt to insist that they have nothing else to offer you, either for love or money, except a fleshless lamb-evidently destined, even by nature, to an early doom-or an ancient ram which has been used for years as a carrier of burdens. As to milk, it is an innocent and excellent article of food; and those whose stomachs dislike it when sweet, can follow the example of milk-drinking nations, and take it when it is sour and curdled, thus saving their stomachs a good deal of trouble; but it takes at least six quarts of milk daily to afford very scanty sustenance to a full-grown man, and by the time the traveller begins upon the fourth