144 IBEX SHOOTING 



over without moving a muscle, except those 

 of his lips, which worked rapidly as he 

 vowed to present numberless sheep to the 

 poor in honour of God if he only got over 

 safely. 



It was hard to imagine that this was the 

 same country we had come through two 

 months ago, then all naked rocks, snow, and 

 bare trees ; now it was covered waist high 

 with luxuriant grass and flowering weeds, 

 and the then dry copses were dense green 

 strips of forest. The river at Wardwan, 

 which we had waded, was now a howling, 

 roaring, foaming torrent, with a new bridge 

 over it ; and our former route down the 

 Mergen Pass was now a hill river, surging 

 down a steep mountain gorge, our new 

 course running along the ridge of the 

 mountain, knee deep in luscious grass. On 

 our way along this path, we passed quite 

 close to the spot where we had got our 

 first ibex, ages ago it seemed. Four days 

 more and we were in Srinagar ; had had a 



