Chamba into Kashmir 131 



they are the right sort of women. Of course, there 

 are women and women ; but in the present day, when 

 so many of them care for a free life, I wonder that 

 the majority of those should still live a conventional 

 one. 



Soon after we were fairly camped up at Mougli, 

 one " parky " morning at 5 a.m., fortified with some 

 coffee and biscuits, we set out, S. and M. with their 

 rifles, and two shikaris, to explore for tahr. As we 

 tramped over the rough ground and climbed gradually 

 up the craggy hillsides, the sun rose. It is idle to 

 describe a sunrise over snow mountains ; paradoxical 

 though it sounds, it is " a light that never was on 

 land or sea." 



It was a hard task labouring up those steep ascents 

 in the rarefied atmosphere. One must have a good 

 head, too, to get round some of the corners, where 

 the rock above bulged out in a most awkward way, 

 and where the ledges, affording scant foothold, sank 

 abruptly into rough, perpendicular precipices far below. 

 M. handed the shikari her rifle, and we held on with 

 our eyelids. 



Almost as bad were the steep slopes of rocky 

 shale which we had to cross. As we carefully moved 

 over them, the loose lumps of rock rolled under 

 our feet at every step and leapt over the edge, the 

 long interval before the sounding crash at the bottom 

 suggesting an unpleasant " drop." 



We wore thick, indiarubber-soled shoes ; they are 

 noiseless, and in climbing through forests do not 



