2 Sport and Life in the Further Himalaya 



fields and glaciers, stupendous precipices, and glit- 

 tering peaks. 



Cascading down the habitable lower slopes are 

 numerous rivulets fed from the snow above. Let 

 us look at the scene from high up the opposite 

 side of the valley. First there appear, below the 

 snow, tiny threads of silver winding through arid 

 slopes of talus. Some 5000 feet above the river 

 strips of light green appear, little fields cut in 

 terraces in which the young barley is just begin- 

 ning to show itself. A few huts are seen lower 

 down and some gaunt poplars, a cold and dreary 

 upland country. Farther down, the strip of green 

 darkens in colour and gradually broadens. Chest- 

 nut, apricot, and other fruit-bearing trees appear, 

 at first scattered, but becoming more numerous, 

 till, at the river's edge, the cultivated fan spreads 

 out to a couple of miles or more in breadth, a 

 variegated mass of golden corn, orchards, and vine- 

 yards, with the little villages half hidden in 

 foliage. Often two or more of these fans join, 

 forming bands of verdure some miles in length. 

 Chitral itself is composed of several of such 

 fans merged into one, and most Chitrali villages 

 are of the same type. In the south of Chitral, 

 where the rainfall is greater, the hillsides, at 

 elevations favourable to the growth of conifers, 

 are clothed in pine forests, and the scenery is 



