A SUMMER IN HIGH ASIA. 



been played at an elevation of upwards of 16,000 

 feet, though Knight seems to have introduced the 

 pastime into Hunza and Nagyr. The prize was 

 won by Sekour Khan, who holed out in five. 



I also had a shooting competition with my little 

 ' 3OO-bore rifle ; but, at fifty yards range, the only 

 ones to hit the target were my three shikaris, and 

 even they seemed to be puzzled by the Beach and 

 Lyman sights. They implored me to compete 

 myself, and I did so, not without some inward 

 misgiving, that I might miss the target altogether 

 or take ten to hole out ; but fortunately my first 

 shot hit the bull's-eye, and I was in the hole in four 

 strokes, so, trying to look as if I always did it like 

 that, I remarked, "That's the way," and rested on 

 my laurels. On this day Saibra, Salia's son, arrived, 

 whom I had left as shikari with B. He had 

 crossed the Pass, which he reported as having very 

 little fresh snow upon it. He brought woeful tales 

 of flood and disaster in Kashmir, and of bridges 

 washed away. He had brought my stores safely to 

 Khalsi, and said that he was the last man to cross 

 the bridge at K argil, on the road from Kashmir 

 to Ladakh, before it was washed away. Here, he 

 said, Godfrey and some other Sahibs on their way 

 to Leh were on one side of the Sooroo River, while 

 others were on the Ladakh side on their way 

 down, unable to build a bridge owing to the floods. 

 Godfrey's graphic account of their adventures 



appears in a subsequent chapter. I was glad that 



90 



