everything that could be dispensed with, including six
maunds of flour, rugs, traps and saddles. The exact
spot is Camp 27a . A solitary cairn, five feet high,
was erected in a dip of the ground, and the stores
buried six paces to the east and two feet below the
surface. Should any other traveller enter that inhospitable
district, it is to be hoped that these
abandoned stores may prove of value to him.
To our great relief, Sabhana’s ponies had actually
put on flesh, owing to the fact that they were carrying
light loads and had had a plentiful supply of good
grass.
The additional flour, rice and tinned goods so added
to our impedimenta that it was found necessary to again
overhaul the stores and discard everything that was
not absolutely essential. Then the original hole in
which the goods had lain was cleared out, relined with
waterproof bags and repacked. We buried in this
place seven yakdans, the majority filled with tinned
foods, including 40 lb. of sugar, tea, jams, brawn,
dried fish, candles, butter, cornflour, brandy,
methylated spirit, matches, rope, etc. Besides this,
720 lb. of flour, a new shooting tent and several
rugs were stowed away. Everything was packed
closely together, surrounded and covered over with
sacks and waterproof sheeting. Rocks were piled up,
and finally the whole camp set to work and shovelled
on quantities of earth, which was rammed down and
smoothed over.
I t was like parting with old friends to leave these
stores, and the filling-in process was rather like a burial
ceremony.
This dépôt is situated at Camp 26, where a ravine
running from the south-west joins the main nullah
running west. North-east of the spot—about 600
yards away—is a hill 250 feet high, on which is a
cairn of stones ; and south-west of the dépôt, on a
low ridge about 100 yards away, stands yet another
cairn. Immediately between these two is a knoll—
30 yards by 20—in the centre of which the treasure
lies buried.
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