AKSU TO SHATTA, IN TEKKES 55 



Here we were at last in the Hi watershed, the 

 promised land, to reach which we had travelled 

 1,200 miles from Srinagar. A herd of some forty 

 ibex were feeding on a hill far above us, too far 

 to go after at that hour of the day, so we only 

 watched them through the telescope and hoped that 

 they were the first of much game to be seen. 



But the stag was the object which had drawn 

 us so far, and to find out the best ground it was 

 necessary to have local shikaris ; so next day we 

 left the ibex in peace and went down the valley, 

 eventually pitching camp near some log huts where 

 there used to be a Russian post during their occupa- 

 tion of the country, but which are now inhabited by 

 a few Kalmak soldiers in the Chinese service. 



The scenery was particularly fine, and a delightful 

 change from the hot and sandy plains of the 

 Yarkand side. Here were green slopes alternating 

 with belts of pine forest, with the snow-clad peaks 

 of the Tian Shan for a background. Many of the 

 glaciers come quite low down, their masses of 

 broken ice and snow forming a strange and beauti- 

 ful contrast with the luxuriant growth of herbage at 

 their sides. A blue sky over all and a stream of 

 clear water at our feet completed the picture, one 

 to which I am quite unable to do justice, it being 

 even finer than the celebrated Sind Valley in 

 Kashmir. 



The Kalmaks here did not seem to know much 



