Stalking Biirhel. 



to exert full power until the year has well advanced. I halted a 

 few minutes before continuing the march, taking a photograph 

 of the caravan, and then began the descent. 



The whole aspect of the country had now changed, for instead 

 of wide open valleys and vast snow-covered uplands, we found 

 ourselves lower down in a mighty gorge, shut in by high mountains 

 falling away in perpendicular sides to the river banks. This 

 narrow gully conducts one to the Yarkand River, a distance of 

 nearly forty miles, in the track of a torrent racing down from 

 the glaciers of the Mustagh Range. For the first five miles the 

 passage of the gorge presents no great difficulties but beyond the 

 water becomes more turbulent, being fed by an ever-increasing 

 volume from the numerous tributaries that flow into it, after- 

 wards expanding into a current which cannons and thunders 

 through the deep and gloomy ravine to finally mingle its waters 

 with those of the Yarkand River. 



The fording of streams is done on the stolid and useful yak, 

 and never did I admire this denizen of high altitudes more than 

 in my march down the Hi Su. He can face the rushing cataract 

 and cross it in safety where a man would be instantly swept 

 away, working his way over huge boulders, and, breasting the 

 foaming current, is quite undismayed by the roar and rush of 

 the angry waters. 



From below the summit of the pass Nadir and I had gone 

 ahead, leaving the transport to follow with Giyani in charge. 

 The Hi Su was reputed to hold burhel, so I was in hopes of getting 

 the chance of a shot at them. In places the ravine widens to a 

 breadth of twenty-five and thirty yards, with a showing of grass 

 that looked promising and indicative of a possible find for shikar 

 of some sort. Three or four miles down I came on a herd of what 

 at first sight appeared to be ibex, but on closer examination with 

 the glasses proved to be burhel. I at once set about prepara- 

 tions for a stalk, Nadir being particularly keen and anxious to 

 demonstrate to me his abihties as a shikari. The right bank of 

 the stream was a tremendous precipice towering up thousands of 



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