204 TO THE KARAKORUM. 



motions to the great amusement of the lookers-on, his 

 queer little wizened face being irresistibly comic. The 

 sporting appointments were all home-made and very 

 ingenious ; the bullet-mould of a black soft stone in two 

 pieces, fastened by wooden pegs ; the bullet was an 

 elongated sphere, crossed in its length and breadth by 

 thin raised bands, the spaces they left containing an 

 ornamental dot. This was Tar-gness' talisman very 

 curious. 



I passed a disturbed night, noises in every direction 

 around me ; men and horses passing to and fro all night ; 

 a dog barking in a desperate manner ; and a shrill cock, 

 mistaking the moonlight and the unusual movements for 

 dawn, keeping up a horrid chanticleering. 



10th August. I was glad of the first symptoms of 

 dawn to rise and rouse the camp. We had a tough job 

 before us as I knew ; but I had not quite reckoned the 

 full extent of it. The path now turned abruptly from 

 Chanloong to the right, out of the valley, over the 

 eastern range which, seen from our camp, did not look 

 formidable, but was in fact the stiffest climb I have had. 

 It occupied us three hours, of which I walked two, and 

 then, seeing the summit still high above us, I mounted, 

 which was a great relief to me and to Abdool who was 

 pulling on my horse. The difference in the dispositions 

 of the three shikarries was here noticeable in their treat- 

 ment of their ponies. Subhan got off, and led his nearly 

 half-way ; the other two never once got off, but when 

 compelled to adjust their saddle-gear, or something of 

 that kind. An hour after we had started, the basrsrage 



' oo o 



animals were still to be seen down below stationary in 

 the enclosure provoking sight. 



The crest of the mountain was very grand ; but the 

 view from it, however magnificent in its scenery, was by 



