166 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



happened months before in a world as far apart and 

 as different from ours as two worlds well could be. 



A long, hot, dusty tramp from Wheeler's camp- 

 ground brought us to Skardu, a large town com- 

 posed of several villages lying amidst a broad ex- 

 panse of wheat-fields and orchards, where we found 

 three other sportsmen camped, two of them sick 

 and unable to push on. A day was spent here pre- 

 paring our twelve ibex-heads, which were then sent 

 off to Srinagar on the backs of four coolies, to be 

 cleaned and salted pending our return ; and on the 

 following morning a start was made down the Indus 

 toward the Haramosh country. We crossed to the 

 right bank on a flimsy raft buoyed up by inflated 

 sheepskins, as the left bank was said to be bad going. 



I should not have cared to try the left bank if it 

 was worse than the right. Our trail was never on a 

 level. Frequently it rose two thousand feet straight 

 up and then dropped immediately again to the In- 

 dus, which, after leaving the plain of Skardu, rushes 

 wildly through a narrow gorge all the way to Ha- 

 ramosh. One march of eight miles occupied five 

 hours. Often the road dwindled to a ledge a few 

 inches broad around some precipice, being pieced 

 out by wooden ladders to make progress possible 

 for the coolies with their heavy loads. The weather 

 had changed greatly since a month before, and the 



