200 SPORT IN THE HIGHLANDS OF KASHMIR chap. 



matter of getting porters. If he failed, I determined to 

 send Abdulla back from Astor. 



On the 1 2th we had a very long and trying march, 

 the difficulty of which is not by any means represented 

 by its track on the map. Starting about daybreak with 

 Abdulla, Chand, and a local coolie, we had a tedious 

 descent into the Maya Dass nala, and then crossed the 

 stream which flows through it. Next followed a rise to 

 a ridge, beyond which we traversed a pleasant meadow- 

 like expanse, with grass and flowers up to our knees. 

 Here we found the tent of a Major Anderson, who was 

 himself out shooting. Then there was a long ascent 

 through pine woods, where the pine needles made the 

 paths very slippery, and when we had surmounted the 

 ridge to which this led, a long and hot descent under a 

 blazing sun to the bottom of the Rondu Mishkin nala. 



Meeting one of the inhabitants, we learned that Jebb, 

 whom I had left at Skardo, had been shooting here, 

 and that he had gone further east. We had to go up 

 towards the head of this nala to o'et over the stream, 

 which I was given to understand could not be crossed 

 lower down in the middle of the day, owing to the 

 amount of water resulting from the snow melting in the 

 heat. Where we crossed it one of the channels of the 

 stream was a mass of black liquid mud, down which 

 rocks were being swept with great force, probably the 

 result of a recent landslip above. A climb over snow 

 brought us to grass and pine woods again, and about 

 half-past eleven we reached a shady wood by a clear 

 stream where we resolved to stop. 



It had been a hot and tiring walk, and I was pretty 



