A DANGEROUS CROSSING. 231 



the romantic beauty of the scenery through which it led. 

 Such grand forests of pine, and birch woods of gnarled old 

 trees ; such green glades of brackens and velvety turf sloping 

 sharply down to the bed of the foaming torrent that surged 

 angrily past, as it dashed against masses of rock and huge 

 boulders which impeded its headlong course ; such exquisite 

 glimpses of blue mountains and snowy peaks towering above 

 all ; and at the end of our walk, such a surpassing lovely spot 

 on which to pitch our camp ; such an exquisite combination, 

 in fact, of nature's wildest charms, as to make one feel as 

 though he could be content to spend the rest of his days there. 

 But the weather was fine, and a good "square meal" had 

 been discussed en route. Had it been otherwise, as is very 

 frequently the case in such places, one might have viewed 

 things through a duller pair of spectacles. 



The men pointed out a spot among the crags on an opposite 

 hill-face where, a year or two before, one of the Nawab's 

 shikarees had been killed by a fall when in pursuit of that 

 most dangerous, though perhaps most fascinating of all Hima- 

 layan sports markhor-hunting. Indeed on this very evening 

 a little episode occurred which, lightly as we thought of it at 

 the time, might have been attended with serious results. We 

 had taken a turn upward to look for a bear, when our progress 

 was arrested by a very steep narrow gully. This we man- 

 aged to cross by means of a sharp-sloping bed of old hard 

 snow that spanned it higher up. When we reached the same 

 spot on our return, a large portion of the identical snow-bank 

 we had trodden on had fallen in, leaving a dark yawning hole. 

 Our weight in crossing had loosened the snow. 



A few miles more up the glen brought us to our first hunt- 

 ing-ground. During our short stay here I shot a young buck, 

 one of a herd of five that we found feeding on a very steep 

 and bare slope of short slippery grass. Down this declivity 

 the stricken animal went tumbling and sliding at a most 

 fearful rate, until it was lost to sight a thousand feet or 



