120 A Sportswoman in India 



it too, with all our kit on their backs, we began to 

 respect them. The reason it was hard work was on 

 account of the rarefied atmosphere ; we were climbing 

 between fourteen and fifteen thousand feet above sea 

 level, and until you have grown used to this altitude 

 breathing is laborious. The Jemadar and Mamdm 

 gave us both a hand now and then. After a spurt 

 of this sort panting we were allowed a rest, till 

 Mamdln came up and said sternly, " Che I ! chel ! 

 Mees Sahib " (" get up ! get up ! "). We meekly 

 rose to renewed efforts. Whenever we asked how 

 much farther, the answer was invariably, " Ooper." 



At one time we had to ford a loud-tongued, rollick- 

 ing stream of ice-cold water, in which immense pine- 

 logs had gone aground, not to be floated off till the 

 next spate. When one saw the white planks also 

 far below in the distance, strewing the bed of a 

 rather dried-up stream, they reminded us of a train of 

 spilt lucifer matches. 



There was a blaze of sunshine everywhere, a universal 

 glitter which I never saw till I came to India ; this, 

 together with the elasticity of the air, banished every 

 feeling of weariness and gave one spirit for anything. 

 The mountains rose like castellated and embattled walls 

 round us, skirted and crowned with dark pines, which 

 occasionally parted to show some snow-slashed peak 

 beyond, rising into the intense, unclouded blue sky. 

 The forests were full of stumps and roots left by 

 woodcutters, and we came across smooth funnels worn 

 in the steep mountain-side, where trunks and logs 



