34 THE FRONTIER DISTRICT OF ASTOR 



Probably they have been entirely cleared out since the 

 occupation of Gilgit by a British garrison ; the information, 

 therefore, that held good a few years ago would now be 

 misleading. 



These are the famous markhor grounds of the Astor 

 district of years gone by. Game used then to be found 

 during the end of the season round the broad base of Nanga 

 Parbat, and in plenty in the Damot and Jagot valleys 

 across the Indus, opposite Biinji. Behind Nanga Parbat, 

 in the direction of Chilas, between the Indus and the 

 Kashmir border, good markhor used to be found. But 

 the Kashmir officials were unwilling to allow European 

 sportsmen to occupy those valleys, for the reasons already 

 given, and the British Eesident in Kashmir generally 

 limited the wanderings of his countrymen in this direction 

 by ruling that the Kashmir border should be the boundary 

 of their excursions. From the Lolosar lake on the road 

 to Chilas, from the Upper Panjab to the bend in the Indus 

 below Ramghat, is a distance of seventy or eighty miles. 

 The frontier line runs along the water-parting of the range ; 

 the Indus is about fifteen or twenty miles from it. The 

 valleys that drain this extent of country were never visited 

 by Europeans in former years. I have no doubt that, 

 under the new regime, they are now open to sportsmen, 

 and good heads should be obtained there. 



Of course there are large tracts of country in the 

 neighbourhood of the Astor district where markhor 

 abound ; but they are hardly yet available. In a few 

 years, no doubt, they will become accessible, and then the 

 mountain hunter will have a vast extent of new ground 

 to range. 



It should be taken for granted that ibex will always 

 be found where markhor abound, but at a much higher 

 elevation. They are numerous on all the higher ranges, 



