292 Sport and Life in the Further Himalaya 



the ground. The remainder got up, and wheeling 

 round towards us came honking along within shot. 

 Two barrels from the twelve-bore dropped another 

 dead ; but in the meantime one of the cripples, 

 which had regained the water, went sailing out 

 into the middle of the lake. The "Alys" was 

 handy, however, and putting her together we 

 started in pursuit. We beat the " barhead " at the 

 paddling, and it was not long before another charge 

 of number three saw him gyrating in the water 

 head downwards, and next moment hauled on 

 board and deposited in the stern. 



The Shandur Lake is one of the sources of the 

 Gilgit river. Starting from the eastern end, a 

 tiny stream trickles out, falls a thousand feet in 

 four miles or so, and then winds along an open 

 valley covered with dwarf willow jungle. The 

 stream then falls rapidly again to Ghizar, twenty- 

 five miles from the lake, where it can be called 

 for the first time a river. Foaming through this 

 little mountain principality, it enters a large, flat, 

 grassy plain, at the farther end of which is a 

 smaller lake called Pandur. At one time or 

 another the whole plain was a sheet of water 

 formed by an enormous dam, which had been 

 thrust across the river-bed by a glacier protrud- 

 ing from the right. At the present time the river 



