MARKHOR AND SHARPU SHOOTING 183 



secured a forty-eight and one half inch markhor- 

 head and was quite naturally in high spirits. The 

 next morning we started for our respective shooting 

 grounds. 



The road from Astore to Srinagar can fairly be 

 called a "road." It is well built for military pur- 

 poses, for it leads to Gilgit, where is stationed the 

 British garrison near the frontier, and very differ- 

 ent it is from the previous trails over which we had 

 come, which were called " roads," I feel sure, out of 

 sarcasm. This one is actually six feet broad in 

 places and smooth as a bicycle path. Accordingly 

 the pack-coolies, excepting the five naukar, or ser- 

 vant-coolies, who were permanent, were now dis- 

 pensed with, paid off, and sent back to their villages, 

 and for the first time in the trip, except for the first 

 day's march, the outfit was carried by seven pack- 

 ponies. I allowed Thomas a pony on account of his 

 age, and Kadera had ordered his own, but person- 

 ally, being in splendid condition, I walked. The 

 distance from Astore to Bandipur, whence one takes 

 the canal-boat to Srinagar, is about one hundred 

 and twenty miles, two high mountain-passes inter- 

 vening before one reaches the Kashmir Valley. 



We camped on the iyth some eight miles above 

 Astore, at what my shikari asserted was the mouth 

 of the nullah which, according to my arrangement 



