6o SPORT IN THE HIGHLANDS OF KASHMIR chap. 



country, for there was daylight to help. But when this 

 failed, and we found ourselves feeling our way in the 

 dark, in a chaotic wilderness of rocks and boulders, the 

 position was not an enviable one. There was no question 

 about the general direction. We had the Indus below us 

 on the left, and the steep hillside above on the right. 

 The point was to keep as much on a level as possible, and 

 avoid climbing if it could be done. There was a sort of 

 a track which the two Tsurri coolies endeavoured to keep 

 to, but in the starlight this was practically impossible. 

 In one place the men all took off what they wore on 

 their feet, to clamber the better up a smooth rock, which I 

 had great difficulty in climbing with my boots on. We 

 only got up by holding on to cracks, which we had to feel 

 for in the dark. In another place we had to cross a 

 frozen snow slope, filling a small ravine. Another time 

 we descended too low, and only knew it when we felt the 

 sand of the Indus under our feet. If firewood and water 

 could have been found anywhere together, we should 

 have halted under a rock for the night. A couple of 

 hours' slow progress like this brought us at last to the 

 village of Gorbidas, where we arrived about 9 p.m., 

 having taken some four hours to cover the 5 miles that 

 separated us from Tsurri. 



The villagers quickly lighted a couple of fires for us, 

 one for the men to cook by, and one for me to eat by. 

 The latter was made near a bit of smooth grass under an 

 apricot-tree, and here I spread the lui and over it the 

 strip of waterproof sheeting which was round my bedding. 

 Then came the sheepskin sleeping bag and the two 

 blankets, and my bed was ready. While Abdulla 



