REACH ASTOR 103 



We reached the crest of the Huttii Pi'r Pass at seven, 

 thus saving myself and the men a very trying ordeal. 

 The porters from Damot dreaded the sun and heat as 

 much as I did myself, and came along in the dark very 

 willingly. The first rays of the sun caught us as we were 

 topping the pass, but fifty yards down the other side we 

 were in the shade of the mountain, and we pushed on 

 without being touched by the sun at all We reached 

 Doin fort at 9.30 a.m. ; the sun was hot enough then, and 

 I was glad enough to seek shelter in the small travellers' 

 bungalow. I returned by the upper or mule road ; the 

 heat on the lower road by which I had gone up would 

 have been quite unendurable, and, in that portion of it 

 where those terrible ups and downs occur, heat apoplexy 

 after ten o'clock would have been a certainty. The higher 

 road, though it is longer and the ascent of the Huttii Pir is 

 very stiff, is much the pleasanter route. 



On the second day, at 1 p.m., I reached Astor. Eozi 

 Khan, Wazir, called in the evening, and the silver stream 

 had to flow again. I had promised the Wazi'r a double- 

 barrelled gun if he got me sport to my satisfaction, but, as 

 my bag was by no means large, I considered that he had 

 not earned the present, and gave him, instead, twenty 

 rupees in cash and my best double blanket : he was well 

 pleased. Fancy " squaring " the chief official in a district 

 in the plains with a similar gift ! But then the Magistrate 

 and Collector in a British district maintains the dignity of 

 his position on forty rupees per mensem. I bought four 

 maunds of flour, ten days' supply for a ten days' expedition 

 after brown bears. I had just that time to spare, and 

 intended making the most of it. I found the old postman 

 here, twenty-one days from the date he last left me. He 

 was the only man of my party who had not given satis- 

 faction. I degraded him and made him a baggage-porter. 



