About Two Miles On The Way
We Came To A Slip In The Mountain-Side, And Just As We Scrambled,
With some difficulty, across this, our foremost shikaree suddenly
dropped down like a stone, and motioning us to follow his
Example,
he stealthily pointed us out four little animals, which he called
"markore," grazing at the bottom of a ravine. Putting our sights to
about 250 yards, we fired both together, with the best intentions, but
indifferent results; for they all scampered off apparently untouched,
and we again resumed our march.
Our encamping ground we found situated among a shady grove of
fir-trees, with a mountain-torrent running beneath, bridged over, as
far as we could see, with dingy-looking fields of snow and ice. Here,
in the middle of June; with snow at our feet, above us, and around
us, we pitched our tent, and had breakfast, and laid our plans for a
search for game to-morrow. Though the wind blew cold and chilly off the
snows, we soon found that the midday sun still asserted his supremacy,
and our faces and hands soon bore witness to the fierceness of the
trial of strength between the two. Our camp, although so high up,
was not more than six miles from Poshana, and from thence we drew all
our supplies, such as milk, eggs, and fowls, &c., the coolies' and
shikarees' subsistence being deducted from their pay. Our own living
was not expensive: fowls, threepence each for large, three-halfpence
small; milk, three-halfpence per quart, and eggs, twelve for the
like amount, or one anna. For the rest, we lived upon chupatties, or
unleavened cakes of flour - very good hot, but "gutta-percha" cold -
potatoes from Lahore, and, in the liquid line, tea and brandy. At night
we slept upon the ground - pretty hard it was while one was awake to
feel it - and not having any lamp, we turned in shortly after dark,
while in the morning we were up and dressed before the nightingales
had cleared their voices. These latter abounded all about us, and
formed a most agreeable addition to our establishment.
JUNE 22. - Left our camp before sunrise, and crossing a large field
of snow over the main torrent, we clambered up the precipitous side
of our opposite mountain. The snow at first felt piercingly cold as
it penetrated our snow-shoes, but before we reached the top, we had
little to complain of in the way of chilliness. Our sharp-sighted
guides soon detected game on the rocks above us, and off we went on
a stalk, over rocks and chasms of snow - now running, now crawling
along, more like serpents than respectable Christians, and all
in a style that would have astonished nobody more than ourselves,
could we have regarded the performance in the cool light of reason,
and not influenced by the excitement of chasing horned cattle of such
rare and curious proportions.
The markore, however, were quite as interested in the sport as we were,
and after an arduous and protracted stalk, they finally gave us the
slip, and we called a halt at the summit of a hill for breakfast and a
rest during the heat of the day. The former we enjoyed as we deserved,
but for the latter I can't say much : occasionally a cold blast from
off the snow would run right through us, while the sun bore down upon
our heads with scorching power, making havoc with whatever part of us
it found exposed to its rays, and blistering our hands and legs. The
guides helped us out by building up a most ricketty-looking shanty
with sticks and pieces of their garments and our own, and under this
apology for shelter, with our feet almost in the snow, we passed the
day, until it was cool enough again to look for game. In the evening
we came suddenly upon a kustura, a sort of half goat, half sheep,
with long teeth like a wolf. He was, however, in such thick cover,
that we were unable to get a shot at him.
Our camp, we found, moved, according to order, some three miles higher
up, to facilitate the shooting on that side: it was still, however,
among the firs and nightingales.
JUNE 23. - Up again before sunrise, and off to the tops of the
mountains in search of game. The pull-up took us about an hour and a
half, and on reaching the summit, we found ourselves above the pass
of the Peer Punjal, the rocky and snow-covered ranges of mountain
around us gradually trending off on all sides, and losing themselves in
pine-covered slopes, till they finally blended with the blue outlines
of the ranges of Pills we had crossed on our route from Bimber. While
taking a sharp look around us for a herd of some twenty animals which
we had seen the day previously, we suddenly found ourselves close
to a party of five markore, but they scampered off so fast over rock
and snowdrift, that they gave us no opportunity of getting a shot.
Following them up, we came, while clinging to an overhanging ledge of
rock, upon one solitary gentleman standing about 150 yards below. We
both fired together, but the pace we had come, and the ground we had
crossed, had unsteadied our aim, and though my second bullet parted
the wool on his back, it was not written that our first markore
was to fall so easily. After this we tracked the first herd for
a long distance over the snow, until they scampered down an almost
perpendicular face of snow and ice, and here we gave them up, halting
on a spur of the mountain for a repast of chicken, eggs, chupatties,
and cold tea. During our morning's work we had come across some
most break-neck places, and had one or two narrow escapes, which,
at the time, one was hardly conscious of.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 13 of 81
Words from 12283 to 13283
of 82277
