100 WURDWAN. 



short, which sounded quite eerie as it broke the frozen still- 

 ness around. They frequently let us approach within small- 

 shot distance, but if not shot quite dead, they instantly dived 

 down among the interstices of the rocks, from which it was 

 impossible to get them out. These marmots are consider- 

 ably larger than the Alpine ones. Their general colour is 

 yellowish below, and reddish brown intermixed with black 

 above. 



After a long and steep descent, where we had, in some 

 places, to keep a sharp look-out for detached rocks and 

 stones rolling down from the heights above, in the evening 

 we reached the village of Unshin, in Wurdwan. Here we 

 learnt that four sportsmen had already crossed the pass, and 

 had taken up their hunting localities, with which we were 

 in honour bound not to interfere. As three of them had 

 gone up the main valley northwards, and only one had gone 

 down it, we decided to proceed in the latter direction. 



The following day, after proceeding about six miles down 

 the valley, I struck up a steep narrow glen to the left, whilst 

 my companion went straight on with the intention of hunt- 

 ing over the mountains above Marroo Wurdwan further east- 

 ward. A rough walk of several miles up the glen brought 

 us to the spot where Ramzan proposed pitching our camp 

 for the night. Next day was Sunday, and never can a day 

 of rest be more appreciated than when hunting among such 

 mountains as these. 



On Monday morning, as we were proceeding up the glen 

 by the side of the torrent that tumbled impetuously down 

 it, Ramzan, pointing upwards, quietly remarked in a casual 

 sort of way, " There are bears up yonder." He evidently 

 considered bears — which were in those days so very numerous 

 among these Cashmere mountains — to be almost beneath our 

 notice when we were after ibex. There they were, however, 

 two of them, feeding on a green grassy slope some distance 

 above, and I had no idea of letting them off without a shot 

 if I could help it, and more especially as I had not up to 



