IN THE WURDWAN. 55 



dismal effect of the combination of rain and snow 

 without dense clouds, too, actually enfolding us at this 

 elevation, probably 15,000 feet I bore up cheerily. 



I was at length left to myself, the shikarries preferring 

 the larger fire outside, on the top of the rock, though 

 exposed to wind and rain, to the small amount of caloric 

 derivable from my few embers. I stirred up my fire 

 occasionally, and sat, thinking and thinking, guiding my 

 thoughts to pleasant subjects and agreeable recollections 

 as much as possible, until I felt not only quite contented, 

 but even disinclined to move. Thus I passed the time 

 from 10 A.M. till 5 P.M. 



At that hour Subhan came to me, and said it had 

 cleared up, and I should be better above. I obeyed. The 

 clouds were still heavy and lowering, shifting up and 

 down, breaking and allowing us occasional and most 

 welcome glimpses of the sun, or rather, sunshine. The 

 effect was striking and grand in the extreme. This 

 rugged, wild gorge enveloped in ever- shifting, varying 

 vapours of different degrees of density now one peak 

 visible, but to be obscured, and another to be ushered on 

 the scene it appeared as if all above was commotion, 

 silent commotion, the clouds and mountain-summits 

 playing at hide and seek. 



We took a final warm at the fire : I threw off my 

 overcoat, and, shivering in my scanty shooting dress, 

 started off over the tract of snow campwards, the 

 shikarries ever looking about for game. 



We had advanced within a mile or two of the new site 

 for the bivouac, when Mooktoo, this time, who was in his 

 usual place behind me, exclaimed that animals were in 

 sight. The spyglass was put in request, and sure enough, 

 said Subhan, there were some ten or twelve keyl (ibex) 

 disporting themselves on a distant mountain. It was 



