A Day after Urial 55 



by the ceaseless action of nature's great sculptor ; 

 bays of sand and shingle, and accumulations of 

 boulders of gigantic size. Above these come 

 sandy rock-strewn terraces, high cliffs of yellow 

 hardened mud, screes of loose rock fragments, 

 and straight slopes of sand all the dSbris, in 

 fact, accumulated through ages from the weather- 

 ing of the great mountains above. Where the 

 slopes are gentle enough for earth to lie, the 

 ground is covered with a scanty growth of 

 strongly aromatic wormwood, known by different 

 names in different localities, the pungent smell 

 of which will always be bound up in the writer's 

 memory with the scenes of many years' sport in 

 the Himalaya. This is the ground beloved of 

 urial during the winter ; in parts as easy to 

 stride over as a heathery moor at home, but else- 

 where as difficult and treacherous as ground can 

 well be. 



The spot to which I would ask my readers 

 to accompany me is some forty -five miles from 

 Gil git, on the narrow road which has been 

 scraped and blasted and built along the left bank 

 of the Indus as far as the border fort of Chilas, 

 where it was my duty for a space to watch the 

 doings of the lower Indus tribesmen. I was on 

 my way thither, accompanied by Gul Sher, and 

 had decided to spend a couple of days after the 



