THE JOURNEY INTO KASHMIR in 



recurrence of my own previous illness ; and as for 

 Wheeler, he was apparently lost somewhere in the 

 Philippines, so that, much as we should miss him 

 on whatever expedition we should undertake, our 

 plans had to be made regardless of his. There was 

 but one country now where the pursuit of health 

 and sport could be carried on simultaneously, and 

 that we both agreed was Kashmir. 



Those few days of preparations I shall not soon 

 forget. The hot weather was at its height, and being 

 occupied with the thousand and one things which 

 a sportsman has to think of, buy, arrange, and pack, 

 when contemplating a long expedition with no base 

 of supplies, I was on foot, despite the heat, from 

 early morning till late at night. Perry eventually 

 joined me from Darjeeling, where both of us had 

 first passed ten days in order to pull him round a bit, 

 and then we left that heat-parched city for better 

 climes. 



The journey to Rawal Pindi, where one leaves the 

 railroad to cross the mountains into Kashmir, occu- 

 pied three nights and three days, fiery, swelter- 

 ing days they were, with the thermometer at 107 

 in our compartment, the air enveloping us like a 

 steaming blanket, and the burning dust of the plains 

 irritating us beyond imagination. But fortunately 

 we had a large compartment to ourselves, in which 



