MARKHOR AND SHARPU SHOOTING 177 



which he clings is giving way, the sensation is 

 unusual. 



The night after leaving the Mishkin Nullah I for- 

 tunately met Wheeler, who, having finished his 

 ibex-shooting, was bound for the markhor country. 

 It was indeed a lucky coincidence that I should have 

 run across him on that particular night, for my 

 coolies had been unable to cross a certain stream 

 which I had forded with great difficulty up to my 

 waist in water, and which later had become swollen 

 by the melting snows of midday, and as I was con- 

 siderably in advance of them, and as there was no 

 means of refording the same stream, I should, had I 

 not met Wheeler, have been obliged to spend the 

 night on the opposite bank, within speaking dis- 

 tance of my outfit, but without food, shelter, or dry 

 clothes. This proved to be my last meeting with 

 Wheeler, nor did I see him again until two years 

 later, when in prosaic surroundings we told one an- 

 other of our subsequent wanderings and reminisced 

 a trifle sadly on our shooting-days. He filled his bag 

 in Kashmir and had some good shooting on the 

 Indian plains before returning home. 



The day after leaving Wheeler we marched to 

 Balochi, where I had previously been ill, and on the 

 following morning left the Indus trail and struck in 

 a long distance, toward the mountain-pass which 



