A SUMMER IN HIGH ASIA. 



ran down to the stream from the precipices above. 

 I thought these slopes quite steep enough for 

 ourselves to cross, and was fairly astonished to see 

 the pony, left to his own devices, calmly following: 

 us, picking his way along the footsteps that we 

 had made. 



Not long afterwards we arrived opposite Mataiyan, 

 where we could see that our camp had been already 

 pitched, but between us and it was a great gulf 

 fixed, in the shape of the Dras stream, by this time 

 a very respectable torrent. However, by dint of 

 hailing at the top of our voices, we managed to 

 attract the attention of a man with a drove of ponies 

 on the opposite side, and told him that we wanted 

 to cross. He shook his head, but being persuaded 

 by our somewhat vehement gesticulations, he tried 

 to drive some of his ponies over the stream in order 

 to ascertain its depth ; they, however, declined to 

 be so driven. At last, in desperation, my Yarkandi 

 pony was induced to enter the torrent, and struggled 

 bravely across ; so we called out to our friends on 

 the opposite side to send him back to take us over, 

 intending to cross one by one on his back. But 

 here an unexpected difficulty awaited us ; he had 

 gone over willingly enough, but nothing would 

 induce him to return, and he finally galloped off 

 gaily to the camp, which he, as well as ourselves, 

 had noticed. After spending some little time in 

 disappointment (not silent), we realised that there 

 was nothing for it but to go down stream some four 



17 C 



