In Gurwal 



former were there all right; I could hear them 

 moving all round me in the mist, and occasionally 

 bleating. The rain now descended in torrents on 

 me as I lay hoping for a break in the clouds, 

 which would at once have given me a choice of 

 splendid heads. For two hours and a half I put 

 up with it, then the rain changed to sleet and 

 hail, while the thar had evidently moved on, as 

 I heard no more of them, and I began to feel 

 that lying alone in a fog on the top of the Hima- 

 layas, with no very clear idea where the new 

 camp was, and surrounded by precipices, was 

 hardly good enough, and I shouted for my shikara. 

 I was quite glad to hear his answer, and more 

 shouting having produced the coolie, we started 

 off cautiously into the fog. We walked and 

 walked, sometimes coming unexpectedly on im- 

 possible places when we had to start off at a 

 fresh angle. There was more discussing of the 

 direction between the shikara and the coolie than 

 I quite liked, and finally darkness made further 

 progress impossible. We all sat down despon- 

 dently, and fired signal shots in the air; to my 

 great relief, they were answered from hardly a 

 mile away. Nevertheless, we daren't move till 

 coolies, despatched from camp, arrived with flaring 

 torches and escorted us home. 



My first thar was obtained in an uneventful 

 way. I saw four or five feeding above me ; there 



59 



