le next day, a tedious job when you are burning
to get on.

The sun rose. The camp began to wake up. All were shivering with cold. I
took my usual cold bath surrounded by a half-frozen crowd of astonished
onlookers, wrapped up in their thick woollen blankets, crouching round me
with their chins on their knees.

The tent was recovered after a while, and soon all was ready to start.

[5] _Chahna_--Pahari. _Choepper_, Dehsi--Hindustani.

[6] _Tokudar_--Head-village man.

[7] _Patwari_--Accountant for a Pargana.

CHAPTER X

The _Nerpani_, or "waterless track"--Exaggerated accounts--A long
shot--The rescue of two coolies--Picturesque Nature--An
involuntary shower-bath--The _Chai_ Pass.

THE renowned _Nerpani_, or _Nerpania_, "waterless track," begins at
Gibti. Very few travellers have been on this road, and by the accounts
brought back many people have been prevented from imitating their
example.

[Illustration: THE NERPANI ROAD]

Personally I found the track far better than I anticipated. I have been
on worse mountain roads among less precipitous cliffs. From what I had
heard it seemed as if the greater part of the road for several miles was
supported on crowbars fixed in the rock, but such is not the case. Here
and there, however, are found along the track spots overhanging
precipices; and where the perpendicular cliff did not allow of a road to
be cut except at great expense, crowbars have been more or less firmly
planted horizontally in the rock, and a narrow path made over them with
large slabs of stone. The drop from the path to the river is often from
eighteen hundred to two thousand feet, and the path is in many places no
wider than six inches. But to any surefooted traveller that would not
constitute a real danger. The road is tedious, for the Nerpania cliff
along which it has been constructed is subdivided into three smaller
cliffs, separated in turn one from the other by ravines. It is thus
troublesome to climb up and down some thousands of feet, each time along
interminable and badly put together flights of steps, only to descend
again on the other side. Some of the descents, especially the last to
Gulamla, are precipitous, but with no nails in one's shoes and no stick
in one's hand, there is really very little danger for people accustomed
to mountaineering.

These are the main elevations on the road: Gibti, 8650 feet, 6750 feet,
7600 feet, 6700 feet, 7100 feet, 6600 feet fr