184 A Sportswoman in India 



fourteen thousand feet, and we warmed our backs 

 with satisfaction at a great wood fire outside the 

 tents, a wonderful moon glimmering over the white 

 wastes. 



Next morning we had a heavy business getting all 

 our baggage-ponies safely over the ridge above the 

 tarn ; but it was done at last, and the rest of the 

 march, downhill all the way to Lidderwat, was simple 

 enough some of the finest country too, in Kashmir. 

 Wandering up on these heights possesses a fascination 

 not to be met with in marching through the valleys. 



By the boulders of the glacier torrents we came 

 across numerous burra chuars (big rats as the 

 natives call marmots). They live high up in the snowy 

 regions of the mountains, generally preferring exposed 

 cliffs or stony expanses, whence they may have a clear 

 view of approaching danger. 



The first thing we heard was a piercing whistle, 

 shrill and uncanny, and looking about, at last discovered 

 a marmot seated on the top of a rock over his own 

 burrow. He was about three feet long, and had 

 reddish brown fur with a black stripe down his back ; 

 he sat up on his hind-legs at Mention, acting sentinel, 

 while his relatives were basking in the sun or else 

 running actively about in search of food. His shrill 

 and impertinent little whistle told us we had been seen, 

 and directly we tried to get closer he whisked into his 

 burrow. Marmots live on roots and leaves, seeds and 

 berries ; like squirrels, they eat with their paws. For 

 their winter quarters they make a large round burrow, 



