excellent seat, and a cold roast teal, an apple, and a small flask of
whisky were soon exhumed from the basket. Water, or rather the want of it,
was a difficulty, for I was uncommonly thirsty, and no sign of any water
was to be seen. A judicious blending of the dry teal with bits of
succulent apple overcame the drought, and the half-hour for refreshment
passed all too quickly.

The men considered it now time to get up some "shikar," so they invented a
bear. This was exciting! They had separated (there were four of them) in
search of traces of bara singh, &c., and some one found the bear, or its
den, or a lock of its wool--I really couldn't quite ascertain which--but
fearful excitement was the immediate result.

A consultation took place in frenzied whispers. My rifle was peeled from
its case, and we proceeded to scramble stealthily down a horribly steep
face much broken by rocks. The shikari being in front with my rifle over
his shoulder, I was favoured with frequent glimpses down its ugly black
barrel as I, like Jill, "came tumbling after," and I rejoiced that all the
cartridges were safely stowed in my own pocket. Well! we searched like
conspirators for that bear, peeped round rocks and peered into holes, and
anxiously eyed all possible and impossible places where a bear might be
supposed to reside, but there was no bear; and at length we arrived on the
bank of the torrent which rioted noisily down the bottom of the nullah.

I now began to realise that plunging about in snow, often over one's knees,
and scrambling among the fallen tree-trunks and great rocks selected by
the torrent to make its bed, was distinctly tiring work!

Presently we came to a bridge over the river. It consisted of a single log,
and appeared extremely slender. The stream was not deep enough to drown a
man, but, all the same, a slip, sending one into the foaming water among a
particularly large and hard collection of boulders, seemed most
undesirable, and I stepped across, like Agag, delicately, carefully
balancing myself with a khudstick. The men came prancing over as if they
were on a good high-road, the careless ease with which they made the
passage bordering on impertinence! I reflected, however, that sheep, and
such like beasts of humble brain, can stroll upon the brink of gruesome
precipices without any fear of falling, and my self-respect returned.

After another half-hour of stiff scrambling I sat down to rest awhile,
leaving the men