58 Sport and Life in the Further Himalaya 



young days Gul Sher was stalking a herd of 

 urial on a flattish piece of ground opposite where 

 we were now sitting. From some way above 

 he had seen the herd disappear down a steep 

 cliff as if going to water, and had gone down 

 after them ; but on arriving at the spot where he 

 expected to get a shot, he saw to his astonishment 

 the last of them emerging from the water on 

 the opposite bank. I suggested that what he 

 saw was in reality a different herd. "That may 

 be, Sahib," said the old man, nodding his head 

 and taking a great pinch of snuff, " but if it was, 

 then there must have been on each bank of the 

 Indus at that moment a herd of exactly the 

 same number, with an identical proportion of 

 rams, and each with one ram that was lame in 

 the same hind leg ! " 



The belief is common enough in the Gilgit 

 district that in winter urial do swim the Indus, 

 but Gul Sher is the only native of these parts 

 I have met or heard of who could be called in 

 any sense an " eye-witness." The idea is that 

 in early spring they cross from the good winter 

 feeding-ground on the right bank to go to their 

 summer pasturages high above Astor. If the 

 story is true, they must be extraordinarily good 

 swimmers, for even in winter the distance to be 

 crossed would be not less than a couple of hundred 



