Here We Engaged A Couple Of
"Shikarees," Or Native Sportsmen, And Made Preparations For A DETOUR
Into The Snows Of The Peer Punjal In Search Of Game.
JUNE 21.
- Having made a division of our property, and sent the
Q.M.G. with an advanced guard two stages on to Heerpore, F. and
I started at daybreak for a five-days' shooting expedition in the
mountains.
We took with us a khidmutgar and bhistie - both capital servants,
but unfortunately not accustomed to cold, much less to snow. Besides
these, we had ten coolies to carry our baggage, consisting of two
small tents, bedding, guns, and cooking utensils, &c.; and our two
shikarees with their two assistants. The two former wore named Khandari
Khan and Baz Khan, - both bare-legged, lightly clothed, sharp-eyed,
hardy-looking mountaineers, and well acquainted with the haunts of
game, and passes through the snow.
For the first time we had now to put on grass shoes or sandals;
and though they felt strange at first, we soon found that they were
absolutely necessary for the work we had before us. Our shoemaker
charged us six annas, or ninepence, for eight pairs, and that was
thirty per cent. over the proper price. However, as one good day's
work runs through a new pair, they are all the better for being rather
cheap. Along the road in all directions one comes across cast-off
remains of shoes, where the wearer has thrown off his worn-out ones
and refitted from his travelling stock; and in this way the needy
proprietor of a very indifferent pair of shoes may, perchance, make
a favourable exchange with the cast-off pair of a more affluent
pedestrian; but, to judge from the specimens we saw, he must be
very needy indeed in order to benefit by the transaction. On leaving
Poshana, we immediately wound up the precipitous side of a mountain
above us, and soon found that, from the rarification of the air, and
the want of practice, we felt the necessity of calling a halt very
frequently, for the purpose, of course, of admiring the scenery and
expatiating upon the beauties of nature. 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.
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