90 IBEX SHOOTING 



rough life in India and the Himalayas had somewhat 

 blunted my senses, but I drew the line at Kashmiri dirt, 

 and I refrained from asking Jafar to display his culinary 

 skill beyond cooking four chapatis every evening. How- 

 ever, nature could not be denied : warm food had become 

 absolutely necessary, and I compromised by closely 

 watching the operations of the accomplished chef, and 

 made him conform to my ideas of cleanliness as closely 

 as adverse circumstances allowed. 



Our arrangements were completed in two hours, and, 

 leaving the four coolies here, the two shikaris, myself, 

 Jafar Bata the indispensable, and Jamala (five in all), 

 proceeded up the Hasharai as far as the watershed, to 

 explore the country and hunt ibex. It would take us two 

 or three days, and I hoped to have rare sport, as the upper 

 portion of this valley had never yet been visited by any 

 sportsman — in fact, it was rarely visited by anyone. The 

 Damot people used to bring their sheep and goats here a 

 few years before, but since their numbers had diminished 

 they had abandoned these grazing grounds to the Ghorians, 

 who seldom came so far. Mirza Khan said no sheep had 

 been grazed here for three years at least. 



At noon we set out along the stream, now a mere 

 thread of water, which we followed for about two miles ; 

 the ground was gently undulating and clothed in tender 

 young grass. The valley opened out considerably and the 

 hillsides sloped gently down, denoting that the summit of 

 the range was not far distant. I could see right round 

 for about three-quarters of a circle : the sky-line bounding 

 the valley is almost level all round, excepting at its head, 

 where a steep wall of bare slatey rock rises against the 

 sky. It began to rain and sleet as we neared our camping 

 place, an old goat-shed very much in want of repair, and 

 there was a heavy snowstorm during the close of the day. 



