INTRODUCTION. 



I FEEL bound, in submitting this book to the public, 

 to explain that it is nothing more than the diary 

 of a journey, undertaken in the summer of 1894, 

 in pursuit of pleasure and the big game of Baltistan 

 and Ladakh. I know that it is without any literary 

 pretension whatever, being merely an account of 

 an expedition such as is undertaken by many 

 travellers and sportsmen every year, and cannot 

 pretend to any geographical or other discoveries. 



The heights of mountains, etc., are copied from 

 the Government Survey ; the heads of the trophies 

 measured and recorded by Rowland Ward, and the 

 collection of Lepidoptera classified at the Natural 

 History Museum, South Kensington. My best 

 thanks are due to Captain Godfrey (late Joint- 

 Commissioner of Ladakh), not only for his kindness 

 in assisting my expedition, but also for the chapter 

 on Central Asian trade at the end of the book ; he 

 also was most kind in revising proofs, and supplying 

 some of the beautiful photographs taken by himself 

 at and near Leh, etc. My thanks are also due to 



