AN INQUISITIVE HIND. 267 



we sadly took our way to where we intended passing the night 

 under shelter of a pine-tree ; so I consoled myself with the 

 knowledge that, like the fishes in the sea, there were still as 

 good deer in the forest as ever came out of it. 



Feeling pretty certain that in the morning we should find 

 one of these noisy fellows out on some open hill-top in our 

 neighbourhood, we were afoot very early. A milk-hind with 

 a well-grown calf, and what looked like a yeld hind, were 

 just retiring into the forest at one end of a glade as we entered 

 it at the other. I had no intention of molesting them, had 

 not the yeld hussey been so inquisitive as to turn back into 

 the open, where she stood gazing at us within little more than 

 a hundred yards. I felt sorry to do it ; but as the stags had 

 been silent all the morning, and she offered such a tempting 

 opportunity of securing some good venison, I let drive. She 

 disappeared into the wood then, but a juicy portion of her 

 reappeared at dinner-time. After our morning meal we went 

 out again and followed up, for some distance, the track of the 

 stag I had shot at on the previous evening, but finding no 

 blood on it confirmed my idea that I had correctly scored a 

 miss. The prospect of sport on this ground seemed so good 

 that we determined to remain where we were for a day or two 

 longer. 



That afternoon we tried the hill-tops that overlook the 

 Cashmere valley. Towards evening we took up a position be- 

 hind a green knowe, whence we could watch a tolerable extent 

 of open ground, and listen for deer in the forest which bor- 

 dered it. It had also the advantage of commanding an exten- 

 sive view of " the vale," lying some 2000 feet below. Even 

 my native companions seemed impressed with the exquisite 

 loveliness of the prospect ; for the Cashmeree, although small- 

 minded in many ways, still has in his soul a spice of romantic 

 admiration for his beautiful fatherland. At the foot of the 

 range we were on lay the dreary, treeless plateau, where, in 

 the centre, stands the massive old ruin of the Temple of the 



