KASHMIR AND THE HIMALAYAS IN MID- WINTER. 249 



rock pigeon, and once a chikor, which resembles the 

 red-legged partridge ; on another occasion one of the 

 enormous vultures, which were always discernible 

 overhead, came sailing past within a few yards, and 

 was greeted with a discharge of No. 6, at which he 

 closed his gigantic pinions and sank like a mere 

 huddled and shapeless mass of brown feathers, down, 

 down far below into the rocky bed of the Jhelum. 

 One of the coolies was sent in search, and the wings 

 taken as trophies ; but unfortunately blown away in a 

 snowstorm three days later, after having been care- 

 fully taxidermised. 



Six days of marching from Murree brought us to 

 Oorie, where two young engineers, who had contracted 

 for a portion of the road, had taken up their quarters 

 in the dak bungalow, well supplied with cheroots, 

 Murree beer, and comforts of that description not 

 generally obtainable. Work was not progressing, for 

 cold weather appears to paralyze the energies of the 

 coolies, excepting the dark, long-haired men from 

 Baltistan, and the ruddy, Mongolian-featured inhabi- 

 tants of Ladak (both provinces of Kashmir), who 

 receive higher wages because they do more work than 

 the others. The skin of a little chamois-like tahr, 

 dreadfully mutilated by an Express bullet, hung 

 outside the door, and I yielded to an invitation to stay 

 and devote the morrow to the chase. The valley at 

 this point widens out ; timber recesses wind back 

 into the main ranges, and make it hard to guess 

 through which valley the Jhelum finds its way ; the 



