72 SPORT JN THE HIGHLANDS OF KASHMIR chap. 



while the men packed up the bedding. About 5.30 a.m. 

 we were in motion once more, and about noon reached 

 the mouth of the Balchu nala, where Bond had camped 

 the night before. Here we stopped for our usual mid- 

 day halt. On the way we met one of Bond's coolies 

 going back to Skardo for his letters, and learned that he 

 was only on three months' leave, and would not be able 

 to spend more than a month on his shooting ground. 

 Bond was obviously only a short distance before us, and 

 there seemed no doubt now we should overtake him. 



The track in places was uncommonly bad. At one 

 point the coolies put all their loads down, and carefully 

 felt their way round a mass of precipitous shelving rocks, 

 which they seemed not to know quite how to negotiate. 

 Then they went back, picked up their loads, and while 

 the path they should follow was fresh in their minds, 

 went past the dangerous part. It was indeed very nasty 

 going here and there, with an almost sheer drop of a 

 couple of hundred feet or more into the Indus below. 

 Later on the path ended at the foot of a perpendicular 

 rock, some 50 or 60 feet high, and I found we had to 

 swarm up its face by a series of tiny ledges. A few miles 

 beyond this we came to a sloping rock, round which we 

 had to get by cracks and very small projections. The 

 Kashmiris, and even the Balti coolies took off their 

 foot-gear to get over this place, and Chand had to be 

 helped by the others. I threw a stone into the Indus 

 from this spot, and by the quarter second rule made out 

 the drop to be over 400 feet. 



About 5 P.M. we descended to the river bed to avoid 

 a bad climb over some high cliffs, and turning a corner 



