2i6 SPORT IN THE HIGHLANDS OF KASHMIR chap. 



of such luxuriant growth. When I stepped off the road 

 I was often standing nearly up to my waist in masses of 

 the richest colour. The scent on the summer air was 

 delicious, and brought back, with a vividness which 

 seems peculiar to odours, recollections of English 

 meadows on a bright summer's day. 



I had my breakfast beyond Minimerg, in a shady 

 wood at the edge of a rapid stream, where the ponies 

 passed me. In the afternoon I walked on and found the 

 camp about a mile on the Gurais side of Mapenun. 

 The map gives the day's journey as some 23 miles, but 

 the amount of ground covered must have been really 

 much more. Including the mid-day halt, we were 

 travelling for some eighteen hours. 



On the 26th we were up in the moonlight by 3 a.m. 

 That morning I came on an English camp close to the 

 roadside, and found it belonged to Mr. and Mrs. Olphert, 

 who were on their way to Gilgit. 



Though I had not come across them before, my wife 

 had met them in Srinagar, so I knew them by name. 

 Accordingly I introduced myself, and was glad to see a 

 white face, and to hear English spoken again after an 

 interval of nearly two months and a half. 



After a cup of tea and a most welcome cigar, I walked 

 on to Gurais, some 13 miles from our last camp, and 

 there looked up the Mitchells, with whom we had 

 marched part of the way coming into Kashmir. They 

 very hospitably put me up for the night, while my things 

 went on to Kanzitwan. 



There was, I knew, a route from Gurais via Tilail, 

 which would have brought me out near Dras, but 



