CAMPING IN CHAMBA, 49 



A strong piece of rope is occasionally useful when after thar. It is a 

 mistake to move rapidly on an open hillside ; animals are often hidden for 

 the moment, or lying down or motionless ; they catch sight of you at once. 

 Whenever a point of vantage that commands a view of the slopes or cliffs is 

 reached, lie down and watch closely for some time. Impress on your shikari 

 the necessity of keeping a very cautious look-out round corners when going 

 along the hillsides. I should probably not have to mourn now the loss of a 

 wounded serow if my head keeper had walked more circumspectly. Gooral 

 hide in crevices or brushwood on the face of precipices ; but they also lurk in 

 pine forest adjoining grass slopes and steep cliffs, and it is surprising what a 

 number will come out sometimes from a cover to graze on the slopes just as it 

 is growing dark. Don't forget your hand -lantern if after them then. The 

 Chamba woods are full of delight for the lover of nature. On all sides one 

 hears " cuckoo, cuckoo," or the " hoopoo, hoopoopoo," of our silent Indian 

 visitor ; bhe koklass springs up from the ferns to glide screaming away or 

 the monaul cock flashes, a gleam of amethystine splendour, through the 

 pines and across the glen. Innumerable thrushes hop about the glades and 

 families of tiny titmice hover round the ends of the pine branches while 

 golden-backed woodpeckers are tapping away at the resonant old trunks. 

 You will often catch glimpses of the Diplo or Dipli, as the Indian Marten 

 M. flavigula,[is called ; sometimes single, sometimes a couple or more of them 

 working along the crevices or up the slopes. Once the yellow-bellied weasel 

 Putorius cathia, and another time the white-nosed weasel, P. canigula came 

 out near me ; and I shot a pair of mountain foxes, one early dawn, firing 

 from my tent door. Early in April the rhododendrons are magnificent ; and 

 even in May they are in bloom among the higher forests, 10,000 feet up. 

 On the upper path from Bukloh to Dalhousie they were in a blaze of scarlet 

 when we passed along it, though a little late for their meridian splendour. 

 The pines whisper continually ; and Pinus longifolia especially, when the 

 wind rashes through its long leaves, makes a hissing sound almost like steam 

 escaping. The oaks at Dalhousie are very grand, and boary with moss • 

 there are some noble deodars (cedars of Himalaya), as at Kajiar. The sides 

 of the paths are tapestried with waving ferns, and fragrant with wild ap- 

 ple blossoms and roses. All who have heard the Himalayas <f a-calling" 

 will know what a land of dreamy beauty to expect ; and will not be 

 disappointed. 



From Chamba we marched 16 miles up to Huh a scattered group of villages 

 on the side of some irregular hills, with cliffs, grass slopes, pine forests and 

 terraced fields, in abundant variety. We found that the "dandy" was 

 impracticable beyond Hul, and my wife had to walk along a very narrow 

 track for nearly three miles further to Gundera, where, near 7,000 feet our 

 first camp was pitched, in a little ravine above a torrent of delicious water* 

 icy cold, from some snow on the hills at the head of the glen. 



