THE GAR HI NALA 205 



We camped on a flat bit of grass, covered with forget-me- 

 nots, and learned from a herdsman in the valley that a 

 sahib, whose name he did not know, had his tent lower 

 down. At the same time I learned that the next nala, 

 Sheltar, had been taken by another sportsman. 



These two nalas being occupied, Abdulla proposed 

 taking the Garhi nala, nearer to Astor, and we set off 

 there next day (the i /th). On the way we met Mahamdu, 

 who had gone down to Bunji on the 12th to arrange 

 about taking on my things which had been abandoned 

 by the Sarsal coolies. When he arrived he found that 

 Sudro had managed to procure transport, and had gone 

 on to Astor. So Mahamdu followed and overtook 

 Sudro, and leaving him at Astor, had come on to meet us. 



Just before reaching the Garhi nala we saw the marks 

 of shapu (uryal) on the hillside, and as Abdulla said they 

 might come down in the evening, we camped at the next 

 place at which water was procurable. But it was of no 

 use, and we saw nothing. 



On the 1 8th we got into Garhi, the things going round 

 below, and Abdulla, Chand, a local coolie, and I, climbing 

 in over a shoulder of the mountain. At the top we startled 

 a few female markhor, but saw nothing else. We found 

 our camp in the evening pitched by the stream. 



On the 19th, giving orders for the camp to follow, 

 the usual four of us went on up the nala, but though 

 we searched carefully and went right up to the semicircle 

 of snow-covered rocks at the end, nothing was seen except 

 a musk deer,^ which was too far off and in too difficult a 

 place to be worth pursuing. 



^ 2/oschus iiioschifferus. 



