Though both man and horse struck out vigorously they
were carried down many hundred yards before reaching the opposite side.
To look at them in the foam and rush of the river, and see their
impetuous career down the current, they appeared to be doomed to certain
destruction. I saw about twenty cross in this way. I walked the whole
of this march, though often tired, as I preferred trusting my own legs
to being carried in the dandy over such bad ground. Curran,
Assistant-Surgeon, 88th Connaught Rangers, is one march in front of me.
He has left his pony here till he returns. I suppose the last march was
too much for him. I am very glad I did not bring my horse with me; I was
strongly advised to do so, but I am afraid advice has not much weight
with me; in this instance anyhow, my own opinion has proved the best.
All the men I meet coming back have horses with them, but they are
nearly all shoeless, lame and sick, and have not been ridden for weeks.
JULY 11th.--Marched on Hultian, distant seventeen miles. Much better
road than yesterday, but many ups and downs and short rough bits.
Started two hours before sunrise, by the light of the moon. The road
soon reached the right bank of the Jhelum and continued the whole
distance alongside of that river. It is a rapid river apparently not so
deep and often not so wide as the Kishun-gunga, its bed strewn with huge
boulders over which the water breaks in great waves of foam.
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