A SUMMER IN HIGH ASIA. 



stream for some three or four miles with cliffs rising 

 almost sheer on either hand, one crag standing 

 out particularly, like an isolated buttress about 

 1000 feet high, from the Mass of Masherbrum, 

 with sides apparently perpendicular, though there 

 are slopes of grass on the top. " What should we 

 do if we were to see ibex there ? " I asked of 

 Salia. " Leave them," was the laconic reply. This 

 was in a way comforting, as I thought that perhaps 

 he considered this sort of thing easy for ibex 

 ground. Some little way farther on we passed 

 through quite a small wood of the pencil cedar 

 (Juniperus excelsa), which here grows to a consider- 

 able size, that is to say, not high, but with a trunk 

 of some girth. The wild flowers here were lovely. 

 Roses in full bloom of enormous size and every 

 shade of crimson and pink, wild indigo, several 

 sorts of Myosotis, including the forget-me-not (whose 

 English name, literally translated into Hindustani for 

 the benefit of my following, became " Humko-mut- 

 buljao," which scarcely sounds attractive), several 

 Alpine blossoms, such as edelweiss and gentians, 

 and many others whose names I do not know. A 

 little way farther on, this side valley divides into 

 two branches, the one running due north and being 

 filled with a large glacier leading up to Masherbrum 

 and other lofty peaks, while the other runs south- 

 east to another range, the latter being also filled 

 with a glacier and dominated a few miles farther on 

 with some of the most stupendous precipices that it 



63 



