so wild that nothing but slugs would secure them, and they entirely
declined the honour of an invitation to our Sunday entertainment.

JUNE 24. -- We were not at all sorry to remember this morning,
as the sun rose, that it was a day of rest, for after our last
few days of work we were fully able to enjoy it. Amused ourselves
exploring all about us, and picking wild flowers in memory of our
camp. The commonest were wild pansy and forget-me-not, and the
rhododendron grew in quantities. In the afternoon we made a muster
of our standing provisions, having only brought four days' supply,
and seeing little chance of getting back for ten. The result was.,
that tea was reported low, potatoes on their last legs, and brandy
in a declining state. Under these melancholy circumstances, we
agreed to stop another day for shooting, and then march over the
snows for Aliabad and Heerpore, to join our main body at the latter
place. A road by Cheta Panee was declared impracticable for coolies,
in consequence of the hardness of the snow; so we gave it up.

JUNE 25. -- All over the mountains again this morning before daybreak,
and up to breakfast-time without seeing game. However, one of our
sharp-sighted guides then detected markore, grazing at a long distance
up the mountains; even through the glasses they were mere specks,
and, to our unpractised eyes, very like the tufts and stones around
them; but in all faith that our guides were right, off we started in
pursuit. The first step was to lose all our morning's toil by plunging
for a mile or so down a steep descent. After that being accomplished,
up we went again, up and up an apparently interminable bank of snow, at
an angle of about sixty degrees, and slippery as glass. At the summit,
exhausted and completely out of breath, we did at last arrive, and from
this our friends of the morning were expected to be within shot. Not a