MARKHOR AND SHARPU SHOOTING 185 



of it: " Nanga Parbat is the culminating point of 

 the Kashmir ranges and is in many respects the 

 grandest mountain in the world. As none of the 

 mountains around it exceed 17,000 feet, it is seen 

 unobstructedly from all sides. . . . From the usual 

 passes into Astore, 16,000 feet vertical is seen. It is 

 seen from the Murree hills over one hundred miles 

 away. The outline and grouping of this mass, rising 

 glistening white, with pinnacle of ice and dome of 

 snow, above the dark lower ranges, just as some 

 huge marble cathedral rises above all meaner build- 

 ings, is a sight never to be forgotten." 



Indeed I can vouch for this. We came on it sud- 

 denly around the shoulder of a mountain, and as I 

 saw its top, towering above the clouds which ob- 

 scured the rest of it, I believed at first that there was 

 some optical illusion, so straight upwards did one 

 have to look to see the peak. The white clouds hung 

 about it all day, but at evening they cleared, reveal- 

 ing it entire. Beside it, the Matterhorn would re- 

 semble a pigmy. Our camp that night was almost at 

 its base, and I breakfasted before daylight on the 

 I9th with the moonlight showing the mountain to 

 its best advantage, incomprehensible in its magni- 

 tude and splendor. 



That day I had a stalk to delight the soul. We 

 left camp before sunrise and soon sighted a herd of 



