110 



RIFLE AXD SPEAR WITH THE RAJPOOTS. 



state of uncertainty as to the side on which it would 

 fall. 



November -lith. — The cold was intense last night. 

 Everything frozen in the tent, even a cup of tea became a 

 solid block of ice. It was a miserable morning when I 

 looked out, dark and damp from a white wet fog, which 

 smelt and tasted like iced steam. The valley below us, 



"a small black valley whitened in places with bnow. 



which you cannot see, is the Chamba Raja's best barasingh 

 ground, and Alan, with a superhuman perseverance, went off 

 in the middle of the night, in the hope of coming across the 

 tracks of one in the snow. Of course he saw nothing, and 

 returned to breakfast wet through and half-frozen. Shortly 

 afterwards, a messenger arrives from the Maharaja of 

 Chamba, with a most courteous letter, telling us to shoot 

 where we like, and consider his country as our own. He 



