216 AFOOT THROUGH THE 



bell heads swung in the light breeze, displaying the 

 sparkling drops in their depths. I looked across the 

 broad valley, and greatly did I rejoice to see, shadowy 

 and mist-enveloped, but unmistakable as ever, the 

 outline of great Nanga Parbat. It only remained 

 distinct for about twenty minutes, and then, as the sun 

 rose higher in the heavens, faded away into a vague 

 pink haze. Greatly cheered by the vision, the longest 

 I had yet had of that glorious peak, I started on a 

 journey of exploration to the westward of the merg, and 

 as not infrequently happens while devoid of all thought 

 of danger, nearly had a bad accident, the only real 

 contretemps during my wanderings. 



The hillsides were in places very steep. At one point 

 a kind of rough shoot had been formed by some old 

 avalanches, and the soil, a loose shale, was treacherous 

 and crumbling. Some way down on one side beneath 

 some hardy shrubs I spied, as I imagined, a rare orchid, 

 and decided to try and capture it. I was obliged to 

 clamber down on the further side from the plants, and 

 then to cross the slide. There was nothing to hold to, 

 and in an instant I felt the whole mass moving beneath 

 me. I made a great effort by the help of my stick to 

 reach the further side, lost my foothold, my stick was 

 torn from my grasp, and with a dizzy motion down 

 I went, a hailstorm of loose clods and stones about 

 me. What added to the unpleasant sensation was the 

 knowledge that some five hundred feet lower there were 

 a slippery slab of rock and a sheer drop. I did not think 

 much, but I had the impression of being pelted by 

 energetic demons with rock, while the world slipped from 

 under me. A tree trunk stopped the way a huge blue 

 pine uprooted, and- luckily lying across my impetuous 



