"A SUMMER IN HIGH ASIA. 



we might buy them, and, of course, we indignantly 

 refused. 



It is, very rightly, against the game laws of 

 Kashmir for any native to offer a head for sale, and 

 we threatened to report the man for doing so ; but 

 the very fact of his showing them to us looks as if 

 he knew that occasionally a " Sahib" would not be 

 averse to (shall we say it ?) add to his bag in this 

 way. A few miles below Khalsi we left the Indus 

 Valley for good, and turned southwards up the fine 

 gorge where the streams from Lamayuru and 

 Wanla come down, having united some little way 

 farther up it. This ravine is a magnificent sight, 

 being very narrow, with the rushing torrent hemmed 

 in on either side by tremendous precipices. I was 

 told that it is quite equal to the Khyber, Bholan, 

 and other more celebrated passes. After crossing 

 the stream at a point where the Wanla torrent 

 comes down from the eastwards (I have been told 

 that this latter direction is the one for anyone to 

 take who is in search of napoo), we ascended the 

 bed of the stream, sometimes wading in the water 

 itself, which was fortunately not deep. Here one 

 of H.'s ponies (luckily not the one which was 

 carrying his horns) fell over a cliff into the stream, 

 but, as it turned out, no serious damage was done, 

 though the Ee, who was in his cage on top of the 

 load, must have been considerably astonished at his 

 sudden ducking, and was certainly not in the best 

 of tempers on his arrival in camp. 



