1 10 Sport and Life in the Further Himalaya 



Let me first try to describe a royal drive as 

 arranged for the Mehtar of Chitral, the premier 

 chieftain of the Hindu Kush. 



Early one winter morning I found myself 

 following a Chitrali guide up a gorge where 

 sheer sides of rock in places almost met above 

 us. Every few hundred yards the torrent im- 

 pinged against one rock wall or the other, 

 necessitating a crossing by means of a pine pole 

 flung across the foaming water. The night's 

 frost had glazed such of these as were touched 

 by the spray with a film of ice, which had to be 

 dusted with sand before even my light-footed guide 

 could trust himself on them. But for these and 

 occasional anxious moments at points where a 

 crossing of the stream had been deemed unneces- 

 sary in local opinion, and we had to creep gingerly 

 round difficult rock corners where the water below 

 roared a most uninviting summons the tract was 

 monotonous enough, as one could see but a short 

 way in front owing to the turns of the gorge. 



The " king," whose shooting-box lay some way 

 up the valley, had gone up the previous evening 

 by a zigzag path over the mountain, along which 

 (on a Chitrali pony) it was possible to ride. 



The valley, which, like most others in this part 

 of the Himalaya, was a gorge for a few miles above 

 its embouchure into the main Chitral glen, pres- 



