BAD WEATHER. 85 



that we could hardly sec a dozen yards around us, making 

 it difficult even for our guide to find his way back to the 

 cave, towards which we now turned our steps. 



On the morrow the early morning again broke bright and 

 clear, so our shikaree proposed that we should bivouac, for 

 the night, higher up on the hill, where, after pointing out 

 the dead tahr to the men who were to fetch it, he was to 

 rejoin us in the evening. As the way was rough and steep 

 for laden men, and we might up there in some places find 

 the snow lying deep, he recommended our taking only our 

 blankets and ready-cooked food with us. It was late in the 

 morning when Kurbeer and I started with one or two of 

 the men who knew the way, to our quarters for the night. 

 We had not proceeded far when one of those sudden 

 changes, so common in the mountains, came over the 

 smiling face of nature. The hitherto sunny sky became 

 obscured with clouds, and our inveterate enemy the rain 

 was soon falling heavily on us. We toiled upward, never- 

 theless, until we reached our destination, another cavity 

 among the rocks. Here we made a big fire, for which we 

 fortunately found plenty of wood at hand. At this we dried 

 our wet clothes and blankets, and made ourselves as com- 

 fortable as we could under the circumstances for the night. 

 The shikaree turned up before dark, and reported that the 

 tahr had been recovered, but that one of its horns had been 

 broken off at the root in its fall, and was nowhere to bd 

 found. This was a pity ; but we were lucky in having got 

 the animal at all, for the shikaree said the place above 

 where it had fallen was such a tremendous "pakhan" 

 (precipice) that it was as much as they could do to reach 

 where it lay and get back with its spoils. 



Having gone up so far, we thought we might as well 

 continue our ascent to the ridge above, and prospect the 

 country beyond it for game — as, beiijg above the timber 

 line, the northern exposure would at that elevation be as 

 bare of forest as a southern one usually is at any height. 



