AN ERRATIC CLIMATE. 233 



sundown were common. On the night of May 26 the 

 thermometer registered 13° of frost, and from 6° to 8° 

 was the usual amount during the first half of June. 

 From the 4th to the 11th we experienced frightful 

 storms, which came on every afternoon with clockwork 

 regularity, lasting well on into the night, and leaving a 

 covering of snow even down in the valley bottom where 

 we were camped. The variations in the temperature 

 were violent in consequence. From early morning to 

 noon, when the snow-clouds began to gather, the ther- 

 mometer would rise steadily. Then, as soon as the sun 

 was obscured, and snow and rain came driving down 

 the mountain-sides, down would come the mercury with 

 a jump, falling 70° or 80° in half as many minutes, and 

 readings such as I find I have recorded on June 14, 

 when the thermometer stood at 26° Fahr. early in the 

 morning, and a few hours later in the sun at 112°, were 

 common. The winter, no doubt, had been an unusually 

 late one here, as it appears to have been throughout 

 Asia, and when I left the upper reaches of the Oriyaas, 

 early in the third week of June, bushes and shrubs were 

 only just breaking into bud. 



On June 5 I explored the ground up a tributary 

 stream to the south, and saw ibex on the hills on 

 either side. Much of the ground is excellent stalking- 

 ground, which is as well perhaps for the sportsman, 

 for the ibex is no fool, and takes excellent precau- 

 tions against surprise, a fact of which I was afforded 

 evidence on this occasion. I was climbing up one 

 side of a steep ravine, well out of sight of the herd 

 I was after, when suddenly on the sky-line opposite 

 us appeared a pair of horns. We — Nurah, Hoh-Hah, 

 and myself — dropped to earth where we were, and 

 watched anxiously while the animal came slowly into 

 full view, while it stood like a statue gazing down 



