228 WANDERINGS OF A 



Young informed me that a bear killed by him on the top of a 

 ridge rolled down some hundred feet, and was immediately 

 surrounded by lammergeyers, vultures, and carrion-crows, 

 all of which settled on the carcase, and commenced devouring 

 it before his party could descend. At the beginning of the 

 season the skins are covered with long thick hair and much 

 woolly pileage, so that a rapacious bird can scarcely injure it 

 except on the belly and head. Subsequently we seldom left 

 our quarry many minutes before crows or vultures were 

 seen circling aloft. The gyratory movement of flight, re- 

 stricted to one spot, is always a signal to the others that 

 something is near at hand. In the woods and among the 

 decayed ferns we were constantly annoyed by a small tick, 

 which almost buries itself in the skia and occasions great 

 irritation. 



Enormous avalanches were often seen dashing down the 

 mountains, and carrying with them large masses of rock, 

 uprooting trees, and pushing their way more than half-across 

 the valley, causing thundering noises in the valleys and 

 offshoots around. My shickaree took me to a shelf of rock 

 to view the scene where Dr. Wray, of the 87th Eegiment, 

 was killed during the previous year. It was a narrow glen, 

 running northwards, and surrounded by steep rugged preci- 

 pices : a large bed of fallen snow covered the sides, and 

 rose up gradually at the upper end to the peaks of the 

 highest mountains. It had evidently slipped a few weeks 

 before our arrival, and occupied the same position as that 

 which entombed Dr. Wray. The ofi&cer and party above men- 

 tioned crossed into Wurdwun in April, when avalanches are 

 most frequent. It seems they were watching the move- 

 ments of a herd of ibexes from the stony bed of the stream 

 in the bottom of the valley, when the constant rumbling 



