san commands the entrance to the Turikho
and Tirach valleys, whose waters meet a few miles north-west of the
fort. Both these valleys are very fertile; in the latter one, and just
before its junction with the former, are several yellow arsenic mines,
but the working of these is not encouraged by the present ruler. Gold
also, I was told, is to be found in the streams about Chitral; this
statement proved correct, as I was able to work up some with the aid of
mercury, and on having the ore tested by a goldsmith's firm in India,
it was pronounced by them to be 21 carat; but this washing is seldom
permitted, the reason assigned by the chief being that if once it were
known that Chitral produced gold, his country would be lost to him.

Mastuj (elevation 7,289 feet) is on the main or Chitral stream, and
commands the entrance to the Laspur Valley, which leads more directly
to Gilgit _via_ Gupis and Gakuch, and was the route traversed by Major
Biddulph. On reaching Gazan, we left the main route and followed up the
smaller one along a stream taking its rise at the Tui Pass (14,812
feet). The ascent to it is easy, but the descent exceedingly difficult,
a nasty piece of glacier having to be traversed, over which we were
unfortunate enough to lose two horses, and had several of our followers
severely frost-bitten about the feet. Two marches further and Gilgit
was reached, and from there in eleven double marches we arrived at
Srinagar, where my disguise was thrown off. To dwell on these last
stages of our journey would be merely repeating what has been so ably
handled by such authorities as Drew, Tanner, and Biddulph.

In conclusion, I would here record that whatever success has attended
this undertaking is due in a great measure to my faithful companions
and allies, Hosein Shah, Sahib Gul, and the Saiad.

The following discussion ensued on the reading of the above paper:--

Colonel Yule said he had for thirty or forty years looked with intense
interest at the dark spot of Kafiristan on the map of Asia, and had
therefore listened with great pleasure to Mr. McNair's modest account of
one of the most adventurous journeys that had ever been described before
the Society. Twenty or twenty-four years ago we had nothing but the
vaguest knowledge of Kafiristan, but the country had been gradually
opened out by General Walker and Colonel Montgomery's pundits in
disguise. Foreign geographers had sometimes cast it in the teeth of
Englishmen t