A SUMMER IN HIGH ASIA. 



have at any rate reconnoitred the higher valleys, 

 after having done which I said that I would return. 

 This he promised to do, and, after renewing my 

 injunction on the morrow, I set out, and following 

 the path which led over a stony plateau, and 

 through a rocky ravine where the going was, to say 

 the least of it, rather rough, eventually reached the 

 nest of mud huts that represents the village of 

 Hushe. 



On our way we passed the opening of another 

 valley which runs to the eastward, and which was 

 also said to be unexplored. It looked as if it might 

 be well worth trying. Near the village of Hushe I 

 found my friend W., whom I had not seen for many 

 years, and as neither of us had talked to a white 

 man for some weeks, we found plenty to say. He 

 had had fine sport, and had made the most of his 

 opportunities, the result having been a magnificent 

 bag of ibex, the biggest head of which was the 

 splendid pair of 45-inch horns that I had met in 

 the Indus valley, when on its way down to 

 Kashmir. He gave me all the information that 

 could possibly assist me ; but his report, that for 

 several days past he had not seen a big head on the 

 feeding grounds, and that the ibex had evidently 

 left for higher regions, was not very encouraging. 

 The following day we spent together, and on the 

 morrow (June i7th), giving me the nalah with 

 the best of wishes for good luck, W. departed, 

 southwards on his way to Kashmir, while I set off 



59 



