NATURALIST IN INDIA. 225 



until we arrived at the confines of the forest after seven hours' 

 constant toil. And glad we were to ease our aching eyes and 

 limbs under the large boulder which had evidently served as 

 a temporary rest for many a weary traveller. The rest of the 

 descent was tolerably easy, until, debouching from the forest, 

 we arrived at the banks of the Scinde river, and, looking up, 

 saw the log huts of Unshun, a few hundred feet above us. 

 There we found Bray and Captain Macandrew. The former had 

 just returned from a search after bears, and was driven back 

 by an attack of ague, from which he had been suffering in the 

 plains, and which, strange to say, continued to molest him 

 among the snow and cold of these arctic regions. We had 

 scarcely finished the grateful repast prepared for us by our 

 friends, when a sudden burst of wailing outside drew us away 

 to witness a poor family plunged into grief on account of one 

 of their number having been killed by a fall whilst felling 

 trees in the moiintains. We now saw our mistake in having 

 crossed the pass at such a time of the year, and in face of the 

 remonstrances of the natives ; nor were our troubles over ; for 

 we now felt uneasy about our servants, the haK of whom were 

 still among the snow. At length the lost coolie made his ap- 

 pearance, bringing the intelligence that our tent had been 

 abandoned in the middle of the pass. The night was bitterly 

 cold, and Young and myself slept in a thin canvas tent 

 belonging to our friends, on which the frost in the following 

 morning lay thick and crisp, when we were aroused by the 

 groans and sobs of the poor laboiirer's- family next door. 

 We started early in quest of bears, of which my companions 

 killed two. Captain Macandrew brought me a specimen of 

 the water-pheasant {Parrot, sinensis), which he shot on the 

 river near the head of the valley. Wurdwun is divided into 

 the upper and lower valley. The former is about eight miles 



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