affairs, in order to oppose those among them who were abetting our Mohammedan adversaries; in short, there is no end to the complications in which this postponement of active operations might involve us.  Everything is more or less uncertain in such affairs; but in the absence of any very palpable blunder, what we actually propose to do would appear to be a pretty safe proceeding.  The main purpose is to expel the fanatics from Judoon; and it is hardly possible that we should fail in this, as they are within easy reach of us there.  The further objects—­of punishing other tribes, and destroying the refuge of the fanatics at Mulka—­may be abandoned if it be deemed advisable, without any loss of prestige, though of course with some abatement of the completeness of the movement.  I therefore thought it necessary to adhere to my original resolution.

[Sidenote:  The Himalayas.]

On the 26th of September Lord Elgin left Simla en route for Sealkote, where he was to rejoin his camp and proceed with it to Peshawur, the most distant station on the North-West frontier, before making his way to the great rendezvous at Lahore.  On the way to Sealkote he was to traverse the upper valleys of the Beas, the Ravee, and the Chenab, and the mountains that divide them; his main object being to inspect the great tea plantations, public and private, recently set on foot in those parts, and to ascertain for himself what facilities or possibilities the country afforded for commercial intercourse with Ladak and China.

For the first week his route lay nearly northwards, through scenes very similar to those which he had left at Simla.  ’We are going through a beautiful country,’ he wrote on the 4th of October, ’and the people seem cheerful and well-to-do.’  Shortly afterwards, having passed over the Sutlej at Komharsen, he crossed a considerable range of mountains by the Jalouri Pass, and found himself in the fertile basin of the Beas.  Directing his course still northwards, he followed this river up to its source among the hills; and thence crossed by the steep and high Rotung Pass from the valley of the Beas into that of the Chenab—­from the rich and smiling country of Kuloo into a rugged and inhospitable tract called Lahoul.  He did not, however, remain long in these desolate regions; but, after crossing the Twig Bridge across the Chandra, an affluent of the Chenab, and inspecting a wooden bridge which had just been constructed to take its place, he retraced his steps southwards to Sultanpore, on the Beas river.  From thence, on the 18th of October, he wrote as follows to Sir Charles Wood:—­

[Sidenote:  Kuloo.] [Sidenote:  Rotung Pass.] [Sidenote:  Twig Bridge.]