500 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol XL 



days later. We climbed up the northern side of the valley after breakfast, 

 and took up a position in the precipices, under some grand pines, to watch 

 the opposite cliffs and the ruggged ground below us. The rhododendrons 

 were in full bloom still at this altitude, and three lovely and distinct shades- 

 — scarlet, pink, and lilac, were to be seen. The hoary oaks, too, had long 

 streamers of greenish-yellow moss trailing all over them. After lying down 

 for a couple of hours, we saw five thar on the opposite side of the ravine, amid 

 some steep precipices. We climbed down through the forest— a very slippery 

 climb — when I fell. (I had put on my cotton-soled boots 5 minutes before to 

 see how they would do, and my ankle twisted under me. I never wore those 

 boots again in Chamba, but stuck to my hob-nails.) Slowly I limped down, 

 and after a painful scramble got opposite three of the thar that were feed- 

 ing quietly along the cliffs, some 300 yards distant, and nearly level with 

 us. Bhiku wanted me to fire at 250 yards, but I said I would try to get 

 nearer. Not without some trepidation, for I had never shot a thar, I crawled 

 to about 180 yards. Two thar were visible. I fired, and hit ; fired again, and 

 hit the other ; they both fell down the precipice into the little crevasse beside 

 the deep layer of snow that covered the torrent ; but we got them out with- 

 out difficulty. On our way home we came on a very large black bear, over 7 

 feet in length, and added him to the bag. The next morning I did not go out, 

 but from my tent door, with my glasses, I saw a bear feeding along the 

 opposite cliffs, about a mile away. We set off promptly to try for a shot 

 from our side, and after a difficult clamber down the precipices beneath the 

 tent, we got to about 200 yards of him. He was by this time (9 o'clock) 

 meditating a sleep ; be chose a grassy bank under a shady tree ; before 

 finally settling to his siesta he sat up and looked round him, then he slept, 

 with his nose between his paws. Eight across the ravine, the little rifle 

 got him fair through the heart. It seemed as if he never woke for an 

 instant even. He rolled down about five yards, and lay stone dead. To 

 make sure, I gave him another shot, that also hit him ; then I sent over 

 for his skin, o e o i>he kestrel breeds in the cliffs everywhere. If 

 an eagle or lammergeyer comes along, the little fellow is out at bim, and 

 chases him away, with the pertinacity of a king-crow. ° * c It is 

 curious to note how exactly the forest runs up to the edge of a ridge, and 

 then stops ; not a tree crosses the boundary ! The other slope is covered 

 with grass only. I could not discover any regular principle in the directions 

 of this curious f orestation and denudation ; but it seemed that generally the 

 slopes facing north-west to north-east were clothed, and those facing south 

 or south-east were inclined to be bare. Have forest fires, burning the drier 

 southern aspects, caused this ? Or is it due to the force with which the mon- 

 soon rains wash down all seeds and seedlings with the mould from the more 

 exposed sides ? Or to an accidental deficiency of suitable mould on some 

 slopes ? 



