DIFFICULT CLIMB 157 



rock on a narrow ledge would, I at first thought, have 

 beaten us altogether, but we managed it without accident, 

 and I was much relieved when it was passed. The end 

 of the spur proved to be a precipice, and I thought we 

 were done for, when we emerged on the last rock, and 

 looked down a drop of some 90 or 100 feet. Far 

 below us lay the pastures and green fields of Jutyal, 

 and at one end of them a couple of tiny patches of 

 khaki ^ showed where our tents were standing pitched 

 in the open. The Jutyal stream, turbid with melting 

 snow, lay between us and the tents, and as the sun 

 was setting the prospect of reaching them seemed 

 remote. Turning back we continued our search, and at 

 last, after considerable climbing, succeeded in getting on 

 to a slope covered with the sage-like plant grazed on by 

 the wild goats, and thence by a series of sharp descents, 

 mainly down the bed of a mountain torrent, to the bottom 

 of the nala. Going down stream, we soon found a place 

 to cross by jumping from rock to rock, and a few minutes 

 after saw us, just before dark, back at our tents. 



Here I heard from Bond, and learned he was at 

 Sarsal on his way to Skardo. I also heard from Hewat, 

 who having dislocated his shoulder, had come to Sarsal to 

 await the arrival of a doctor from Gilgit for whom he had 

 sent. The apothecary from Skardo, who had visited him 

 at Shongus, had been unable to do anything for him. 



The 17th proved a blank day. We went off a little 

 after dawn as usual, leaving orders for the camp to 

 follow, and getting on to a stony ridge which overhung 

 the glacier at the top of the nala, we took up a 



^ Dust colour, of which the tents had been dyed. 



