It was through very difficult country
where no wheeled traffic could pass, so we were to ride, with all
our belongings carried by coolies. I bought two hill-ponies the
size of Newfoundland dogs for myself and my "bearer," and we
started. The little animals being used to carrying packs, have a
disconcerting trick of keeping close to the very edge of the
khudd, for experience has taught them that to bump their load
against the rock wall on the inner side gives them an unpleasant
jar. These little hill-ponies are wonderfully sure-footed, and can
climb like cats over dry water-courses piled with rocks and great
boulders, which a man on foot would find difficult to negotiate.
The rhododendrons were then in full flower, and the hills were one
blaze of colour. We were always going up and up, and as we
ascended, the deep crimson rhododendron flowers of Naini Tal
gradually faded to rose-colour, from rose-colour to pale pink, and
from pink to pure white. It was a perfect education travelling
with Colonel Erskine, for that shrewd and kindly old Scotsman had
spent half his life in India, and knew the Oriental inside out.
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