THE END OF A LONG JOURNEY. 373 



upon. From it I learned that my regiment was to form part 

 of a force about to proceed on active service. There was no 

 time to lose ; so we hurried through the beautiful Kangra 

 valley, with its numerous tea-plantations, to Dhurrumsala, 

 the nearest military station. Here I bade good-bye to the 

 Major, who was bound for the Punjab. 



Irrespective of the ground worked over in hunting, we had 

 covered, during this my first trip beyond the Himalayas, a 

 good 1300 miles of regular mountain travel, about a thousand 

 of which were in Tibet, at an elevation, on an average, of 

 nearly 15,000 feet almost as high as the top of Mont Blanc, 

 though not quite so snowy. But my pleasure in looking back 

 to these wanderings is mingled with sorrow, when I think that 

 my boon companion throughout them has since then gone on 

 another long journey, and this "time to the " happy hunting- 

 grounds " whence there is no returning. 



