146 Sport and Life in the Further Himalaya 



moving. Loath as I was to leave the cool of the 

 garden, I said good-bye to my host and climbed 

 on to my disgusted pony, and we resumed our 

 road up the valley. After an hour's riding we 

 came to a foaming torrent issuing from a narrow 

 gorge to our right. My guide, who was the 

 aksakal of the mines, said the mines were " up 

 there," and that we must now go on foot. A 

 track was visible up the side of the mountains 

 to some rocks that seemed a great height above 

 us, and this we followed. The sun was hot, the 

 hill was steep, and I found it necessary to stop 

 once or twice to admire the view before reaching 

 the crags, which were not, as I had fondly hoped, 

 the end of our climb. A bit of orpiment was here 

 picked up that had been dropped on the way, 

 and afforded a welcome excuse for an " easy." 

 A bright, golden-yellow, lustrous piece of stone, 

 of what mineralogists lucidly call a " lamellar tex- 

 ture," flaky like mica and flexible like asbestos; 

 it is the auri pigmentum or paint of gold of the 

 ancients. It was supposed by them to contain the 

 precious metal, but it is needless to say that it 

 does not. Its use in commerce is to manufacture 

 the beautiful colour known as king's yellow. As 

 it is a compound of arsenic, I inquired from my 

 guide if it was poison. He replied by putting 

 half of the piece picked up into his mouth and 



