AN EARLY START 75 



saw that day, and I did not get a shot at him. Next day 

 we went up Salat stream, and camped on its bank, about 

 two miles from the tent. Mirza Khan said this was his 

 pet nala, and that he would show me some real old bucks 

 very shortly. 



We were on the move very early in the morning, and, 

 crossing the stream to the right bank, went up a very 

 steep and narrow gorge. It took us three hours to get to 

 the top of the ridge. When we were more than half-way 

 up, I saw a markhor on the sky-line ; he had seen us long 

 before, and disappeared behind the ridge, after rolling down 

 some stones, from which the coolies had a narrow escape. 

 Leaving the men behind, in a depression, we crossed over 

 and came to patches of snow on a hillside, with broken 

 rocks scattered about a very bad bit of ground. Then an 

 awkward scramble through a dense patch of young birches. 

 We breakfasted at a snow stream, and then toiled on to 

 the next ridge. Here we saw the markhor again ; 

 he was lying in the shade of a birch-tree on the ridge we 

 had just crossed, but lower down ; he gave the alarm, and 

 disappeared on the other side whence we had come. 

 Disgusting ! We had been looking for him all this time, 

 and he had been lying comfortably at the foot of a tree 

 not a dozen yards from the place where we had last seen 

 him while toiling up the gorge. I put up for the day 

 under a rock overlooking a bit of dense pine forest, while 

 the two shikaris went lower down to look for game. I 

 had a nap, and then took out a Civil and Military Gazette, 

 more than a month old, and read it word for word nearly 

 to the end. I was just getting through a report on 

 cholera, by a Dr. Eichards, and was wondering what 

 " alvine choleraic discharges " meant, when a pebble fell 

 on the paper. Looking up, I could just see Sharafa 

 peeping over the rock above me. I crept round with all 



