Lower down there were a few more, then stunted
specimens of the pencil cedar, and the mountains began to show a
shade of green on their lower slopes. Butterflies appeared also, and
a vulture, a grand bird on the wing, hovered ominously over us for
some miles, and was succeeded by an equally ominous raven. On the
excellent bridle-track cut on the face of the precipices which
overhang the Bhaga, there is in nine miles only one spot in which it
is possible to pitch a five-foot tent, and at Darcha, the first
hamlet in Lahul, the only camping-ground is on the house roofs.
There the Chang-pas and their yaks and horses who had served me
pleasantly and faithfully from Tsala left me, and returned to the
freedom of their desert life. At Kolang, the next hamlet, where the
thunder of the Bhaga was almost intolerable, Hara Chang, the
magistrate, one of the thakurs or feudal proprietors of Lahul, with
his son and nephew and a large retinue, called on me; and the next
morning Mr. -- and I went by invitation to visit him in his castle, a
magnificently situated building on a rocky spur 1,000 feet above the
camping-ground, attained by a difficult climb, and nearly on a level
with the glittering glaciers and ice-falls on the other side of the
Bhaga.
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