308 THE BARA SING. 



resolved to pack off all the traps, and wait till the skin 

 ^nd fat were brought in, in the morning. 



6th October. All the baggage off, and Mooktoo with 

 two coolies gone for the spoils, I sat by the fire two hours 

 at least ere the skinning party returned ; then off imme- 

 diately, and crossed several snowdrifts the valley narrow 

 with a gradual, almost imperceptible ascent. We had 

 arrived at an extensive mass of snow over which ran the 

 path, when Subhan, as I was crossing it, pointed out 

 some wild fowl on a frozen pool below. They were far 

 off, and rose wild. As they squattered over the ice, I 

 fired both barrels and dropped one bird, a duck ; then 

 crossed the snow, and scrutinising the stream saw wild 

 fowl in a bend under some overhanging snow ; crawled 

 up and dropped five of them a duck, a widgeon, and 

 three teal. 



"We continued our route, crossing over to the other side 

 on an enormous mass of snow filling the ravine no 

 longer a valley and bridging the torrent. A sharp 

 climb up, then a gradual ascent, and we were on the top 

 of the pass, though not on the top of the mountain. A 

 view of transcendent magnificence and beauty opened 

 upon us. Every conceivable form and colour of loveli- 

 ness in landscape seemed here united. The mountains, 

 opening out into valleys and dells clad in the richest 

 verdure, with foliage of infinite variety only, perhaps, 

 rather too general a tint of yellow stretched in ranges 

 on either hand far away back, giving beautiful distances 

 with their infinite shades of blue. Close at hand, their 

 savage rugged crests, riven and split into all imaginable 

 forms of pinnacle and peak, here and there a snow- 

 covered mass more level separating them, frowned over- 

 head. Lovely peeps downward to the torrent glistening 

 below were offered through the vistas of the foliage. 



