42 
NARRATIVE. 
and for several miles above Tdshgdm, wliere the 
valley becomes very narrow, vegetation is very scanty. 
Along the river there are a few stunted bushes of the 
pencil-cedar, Juniper us excelsa, and at Tashgam there 
are several acres of Tamarisk and Myricaria jungle. 
On the return journey in October I here shot an 
ermine, Mustela emiinea ; and as none of the villagers 
could give a name to it, the animal is probably rare. 
At the same time I also shot a young Lammer- 
geyer. A pair of them were feeding on the carcase of 
a horse which had died quite recently. This was the 
only occasion on which I saw these birds touch carrion. 
On June 24th we marched over fifteen miles to 
Kirkichu, keeping along the Dras river the whole 
way. A mile after leaving camp we crossed the 
Drds river by a very dilapidated wooden bridge. 
As I neared the bridge, our pack-horses were in the 
act of crossing, and seemed to have great difficulty in 
keeping their feet. Suddenly one missed its footing, 
made a few plunges, and disappeared for ever in the 
roaring torrent beneath. It turned out to be a 
serious loss, for it was the pony which carried some 
valuable books belonging to Kalil, the Arab priest, 
who had brought them all the way from Mecca as a 
present to the Atalik Ghazi. When I came up, 
Kalil was standing on the bridge, in a state of utter 
despair. The pony was never seen again, but the 
books, being light, were found floating in the river 
half a mile lower down. On this march I saw large 
flocks of the pretty little gold-headed finch, Meto- 
pomia pusilla, in full breeding plumage, and a Dipper 
{Ilydrohato) was very abundant in the river. The 
W2^-GXQQ^^QX, Tichodroma muraria^ also common,- 
