A SUMMER IN HIGH ASIA. 



time. Riding through some narrow valleys with 

 fine rock scenery, and passing villages which looked 

 most fertile with the grass, willows and poplar 

 trees, we eventually emerged, through a rocky 

 " Derwaza," or gateway, on to the well cultivated 

 little plain of Pushkim, where there is a considerable 

 village. Here we camped under some poplars near 

 the stream, and it was not long before H. arrived, 

 having killed a shapoo, and bringing with him W., 

 an officer who had been shooting in the Chang- 

 chenmo Valley, and had had good sport. Soon 

 after starting from Pushkim on the following day, 

 we arrived on a high plateau beyond which the 

 Wakha stream joins the river that comes down 

 the Sooroo Valley (over which Captain Godfrey 

 and his companions had built the bridge), at whose 

 junction is situated Kargil, the frontier village of 

 Baltistan, and Ladakh, a place of some importance. 

 As we were crossing this table-land, we had fine 

 views of the snowy peaks of Sooroo, whose side 

 nalahs are so famous for ibex. As soon as the 

 Sooroo River is crossed, the character of the 

 mountains changes, and I was once more amongst 

 my old friends (?), the steep granite ranges and 

 precipitous ravines of Baltistan. A little farther on 

 the road turns a corner, where the Sooroo River 

 joins the Dras stream, and on the opposite bank 

 of the latter I could see the path that leads down 

 to the Indus Valley, which I had traversed on my 



way to Skardo. Our road lay along the narrow 



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