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 CHAPTER VI THE VALLEYS AND PLACES OF INTEREST

Tae Sinp VALLEY

THE most striking of the side-valleys is undoubt- edly the Sind Valley. A fourteen-miles ride, or a night in a boat, takes the traveller to Ganderbal at its mouth, from which Sonamarg, the favourite camping-ground near the head of the valley, is four marches distant. The lower portion is not particularly interesting, though even here the pine woods, the rushing river, and the village clusters are beautiful. But at Sonamarg, “the golden meadow,” the great peaks close round, glaciers pour down their flanks almost on to the camping- ground, and the scenery has all the grandeur of the Alps.

Sonamarg itself is a narrow grassy flat, 8650 feet above sea-level, extending for some two miles

between the hill-side and the river-bank, where 92