86 AFOOT THROUGH THE 



days or a week or two, were rapidly causing the dis- 

 appearance of all game in the nearer nullahs. The 

 sportsmen's life in the wild, rocky, barren hills beyond 

 the Happy Valley is an exciting and an interesting 

 one. The stalks are frequently over hills that to ordinary 

 folk would appear quite inaccessible, and quite impass- 

 able for all porters ; consequently, the keen shikari must 

 learn to face all weathers and spend nights unsheltered 

 from the elements save by such clothes as he stands up 

 in, and perhaps a sleeping bag of felt and fur. This, 

 and the long days spent on the hillsides, season him to 

 the conditions of a hunter's life in a way nothing 

 else will; and from the intimate knowledge those 

 men acquire, who have been long among the 

 various mountain tribes, of language, habits, and 

 customs, they become very valuable in time of 

 unrest when fighting is in the air, and as is usually 

 the case in distant corners of our vast empire, there are 

 but few at hand to control the disturbance or to under- 

 stand its causes. Ladies have often accompanied these 

 distant sporting expeditions, and have found plenty of 

 work securing food supplies, superintending the camp 

 arrangements, mending, and washing besides amusing 

 themselves with a rifle when game was to be had within 

 reasonable distance. Many women become very expert 

 rifle shots when they can find scope for their skill without 

 over-fatigue, a thing which seldom fails both to unsteady 

 hand and eye. 



To return to my march from Revel, from 

 a village about six miles beyond it, Gagangair, 

 where the camping-ground even for Kashmir was 

 unusually beautiful, the path began to ascend at times 

 gently, at other points with a swiftness and abruptness 



