66 Sport and Life in the Further Himalaya 



stalkers Pathans and Kashmiris, Chitralis and 

 Gilgitis, Ladakis and Kirghis, and queer-garbed 

 devotees of Diana of as many more mountain 

 tribes, but the language of all after some hours 

 of this sort of thing (beginning with the prelim- 

 inary expectoration on the ground) has a very 

 similar ring about it. For there is no approach- 

 ing the herd when that vigilant sentry is on 

 guard. 



It was not till three o'clock in the afternoon, 

 after more than six hours' watching, that the last 

 animal disappeared into the" nullah and we were 

 able to go on. Just time, however, if the herd 

 had not gone far, to get a shot before it would 

 be too dark to find our way back. The climbing 

 became easier as we got higher, and in an hour's 

 time we found ourselves crawling up the last few 

 feet to look over the ridge. 



A wide valley opened before us. The upper 

 part, clothed with pines and junipers, was deep in 

 snow, which lay in patches as far down as we were 

 lying. Below us the valley was bare of vegeta- 

 tion. Two parallel ridges running down the 

 centre evidently at one time formed the lateral 

 moraine of a glacier and made a sort of secondary 

 ravine into which we could not see. Into this I 

 saw some animals disappear, but not soon enough 

 to make out whether they were our herd or an- 



