A SUMMER IN HIGH ASIA. 



expected to see any oorin, or shapoo, as they are 

 called in Ladakh, in these parts, and was much 

 excited. The following day it poured with rain and 

 blew a hurricane, making it quite impossible to go 

 out, and I had to content myself with looking up 

 the valley and seeing occasional glimpses of 

 Masherbrum through the clouds ; I, however, sent 

 Ullia up the hill, and on his return he said that he 

 had watched a flock of thirty oorin, and amongst 

 them were certainly six very good rams. 



Very early the next morning, as soon as it got 

 light enough to see our way, we started. It was 

 my first day's real climbing, and I was not yet 

 accustomed to the rarefied air of these elevations, 

 so that I got considerably " pumped " ; while to 

 add to my discomfort my "pulas," or grass shoes, 

 kept on curling up under my feet, owing to the 

 steep angle of the slopes that we ascended, and in 

 spite of the thong which passes between one's big 

 toe and the rest, to facilitate which fastening one 

 wears stockings with the big toe separated, like the 

 thumb of a glove. The hillside that we were 

 climbing was a steep one, and in many places steps 

 had to be cut in the hard sand as if we had been on 

 ice (the mountain staffs used by the Baltis always 

 have a wooden blade somewhat resembling a spud 

 for this purpose). We continued our upward 

 scramble for four hours, and I was not sorry when 

 we reached a ridge, where at last we halted and 

 looked over. There, sure enough, far below us, 



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