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 TRAVELLING IN OLDEN TIMES 41

And when he finally left Kashmir for the Punjab by the Jhelum valley he was stopped by a small semi-independent chief near Uri, who demanded Rs. 15,000 as customs duty on his caravan, and as Moorcroft refused to pay more than Rs. 500 he was compelled to return to Srinagar and reach the Punjab by another route.

These certainly were not the halcyon days of Kashmir travel. But I suppose there must have been an intermediate time between then and now when travelling in Kashmir was perfection to those who had time enough at their disposal to “march” in. In those delightful times the traveller pitched his little camp wherever he wished. Grain was ridiculously cheap. owls were considered dear at twopence each. Coolies were thankful enough to get any payment at all. There were no game laws nor game licences, so that the sportsman could shoot to*his heart’s content. The number of visitors for the year was restricted to a hundred, so that each had seven or eight hundred square miles to himself, and there was no need for dress clothes, white shirts, or Ascot dresses.

Srinagar is 196 miles distant from the railway at Rawal Pindi, and is connected with it by a good cart-road—good, that is in its normal con-