A SUMMER IN HIGH ASIA. 



for the head of the valley, determined that if the 

 ibex had gone high I would go high too, and that it 

 should not be for want of trying if I did not get one 

 or two good heads. A rather amusing incident 

 occurred before we parted. W. and I found that the 

 time by our watches varied, his being about an hour 

 in advance of mine. We each maintained that we 

 were sure that our own time was the right time, he 

 saying that a second watch of his, that had never 

 been known to go wrong, made it exactly the same 

 as the one that he was showing me, whilst I quoted 

 Babu Lai's to back me up. After a somewhat 

 animated discussion, and some thinking over it, 

 with the help of a compass, a stick, and a plumb-line 

 (the latter to keep the stick upright) we rigged up a 

 rough sundial, agreeing that when the shadow of the 

 stick coincided with the N. and S. line, it should be 

 12 noon. My watch won, being only a few minutes 

 out, but I think that what vexed W. most was 

 the fact of his having retired to rest an hour before 

 he meant to do so, and having got up an hour too 

 early ; especially the latter ! I subsequently checked 

 my time by this rough method about once a week 

 during my wanderings. The village of Hushe was 

 in itself interesting as a type of the home of the 

 Balti mountaineer who dwells in the more secluded 

 valleys. Shut in on either side by precipitous and 

 forbidding crags and dominated at the head of the 

 valley, some three miles away, by the glaciers and 



precipices of Mashcrbrum, the inhabitants pass 



60 



