158 FROM YARKAND TO AKSU. 



and very precipitous, resembling the Salt range 

 in the Punjab. In this direction my new shikari 

 said there were lots of maral and some tigers. 



We tried it next day, but the grass was so high 

 that without elephants it was utterly hopeless, 

 and I only shot a few pheasants in the evening. 



As the only other good beat was un-get-at-able, 

 owing to the river being impossible to ford and 

 the ice not strong enough to bear, I went on 

 to Tumchuk. There I passed through one of 

 the finest jungles I had seen in the country 

 in some places too thick to shoot in, and almost 

 impenetrable except by crawling. 



We moved on to a beautiful tree-jungle quite 

 clear of undergrowth, where, the shikari said, 

 the deer frequently passed in the morning and 

 evening ; and their tracks were numerous, but 

 no stags to be seen. Hard by was a cairn of 

 stones, with one or two horns on it, and a pole 

 in the centre from which hung a piece of rag. 

 This mazar, he told me, was erected in memory 

 of a man who was pulled off his pony and killed 

 by a tiger some years before. There were a 

 good many in the forest, as I surmised from the 

 number of pugs I had seen, and I always lived in 

 hopes of coming across one ; but knowing their 



